Harry and Alex Potter Read Book 2
by Fanficfanatic1211
Summary: It is a continuation of my first story Harry and Alex Potter Read Book 1. Harry, his younger sister Alex, the Wealseys, Hermione, Professor McGonogall, Professor Dumbledore, Sirius, and Remus read the second book. Set GoF before the third task. Please R&R and you should read the first one to understand this one.
1. Chapter 1

OHMYGOODNESSGRACIOUS. I am so excited! Second book here we come! Alex will be a major part of this book and the ones after it. Harry reading!

Don't own. JK Rowling does: )

"**The Worst Birthday**."

Harry and Alex groaned.

"Dursleys," Ron growled.

**Not for the first time, an argument had broken out over breakfast at number four, Privet Drive.**

"And absolutely not the last," Alex sighed.

**Mr. Vernon Dursley had been woken in the early hours of the morning by a loud, hooting noise from his niece Alex, and nephew Harry's room.**

**"Third time this week!" he roared across the table. "If you can't control that owl, it'll have to go!"**

**Harry tried, yet again, to explain.**

**"She's bored," he said. "She's used to flying around outside. If I could just let her out at night -"**

**"Do I look stupid," snarled Uncle Vernon, a bit of fried egg dangling from his bushy mustache.**

"Too easy," The twins said with large grins.

**"I know what'll happen if that owl's let out."**

"You cannot keep an animal locked up all the time!" Charlie said angrily.

**He exchanged dark looks with his wife, Petunia. Harry's sister, Alex, was trying not to laugh at the egg in Uncle Vernon's mustache. **

"Trust me, it was hard," Alex said.

**Harry tried to argue back but his words were drowned by a long, loud belch from the Dursleys' son, Dudley.**

"Being civilized," Percy sniffed. "You should try it."

**"I want more bacon."**

"You _need_ manners," Molly said scathingly.

**"There's more in the frying pan, sweetums," said Aunt Petunia, turning misty eyes on her massive son. "We must build you up while we've got the chance ... I don't like the sound of that school food ..."**

**"Nonsense, Petunia, I never went hungry when I was at Smeltings," said Uncle Vernon heartily. "Dudley gets enough, don't you, son."**

**Dudley, who was so large his bottom drooped over either side of the kitchen chair, **

"That is just disgusting," Ginny said, repulsed.

**grinned and turned to Harry.**

**"Pass the frying pan."**

**"You've forgotten the magic word," said Harry irritably.**

"Teach the oaf some manners," Remus nodded.

"I just should have worded it better," Harry said wryly

**The effect of this simple sentence on the rest of the family was incredible; Dudley gasped and fell off his chair with a crash that shook the whole kitchen; Mrs. Dursley gave a small scream and clapped her hands to her mouth; Mr. Dursley jumped to his feet, veins throbbing in his temples; Alex looked at her brother like he was an idiot.**

**"I meant `please'!" said Harry quickly.**

"I thought that was obvious," Hermione said, confused.

**"I didn't mean -" **

**"WHAT HAVE I TOLD YOU," thundered his uncle, spraying spit over the table,"ABOUT SAYING THE `M' WORD IN OUR HOUSE."**

"The 'm' word?" Sirius asked, incredulous.

**"But I -"**

**"HOW DARE YOU THREATEN DUDLEY!" roared Uncle Vernon, pounding the table with his fist.**

"He was not _threatened_. He was taught a lesson in _manners_," Percy said.

**"I just -"**

**"I WARNED YOU! I WILL NOT TOLERATE MENTION OF YOUR ABNORMALITY UNDER THIS ROOF!" **

**Harry stared from his purple-faced uncle to his pale aunt, who was trying to heave Dudley to his feet.**

**"All right," said Harry, "all right. . . " **

**Uncle Vernon sat back down, breathing like a winded rhinoceros and watching Harry closely out of the corners of his small, sharp eyes.**

**Ever since Harry had come home for the summer holidays, Uncle Vernon had been treating him and his sister like a bomb that might go off at any moment, because Harry Potter and Alex Potter weren't normal children. **

"Definitely not," Ginny snorted.

**As a matter of fact, they were as not normal as it is possible to be.**

**Harry Potter was a wizard – a wizard fresh from his first year at Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry. And Alex Potter was a witch about to start at Hogwarts.**

**And if the Dursleys were unhappy to have Harry back for the holidays, it was nothing to how Harry felt.**

**He missed Hogwarts so much it was like having a constant stomachache. **

**He missed the castle, with its secret passageways and ghosts, his classes (though perhaps not Snape, the Potions master), the mail arriving by owl, eating banquets in the Great Hall, sleeping in his four-poster bed in the tower dormitory, visiting the gamekeeper, Hagrid, in his cabin next to the Forbidden Forest in the grounds, and, especially, Quidditch, **

"Got the priorities straight," Charlie flashed him a grin.

**the most popular sport in the wizarding world (six tall goal posts, four flying balls, and fourteen players on broomsticks).**

**Alex simply couldn't wait to go and experience it all for herself. Though she would never tire of the stories her brother told.**

**All Harry's spellbooks, his wand, robes, cauldron, and top-of-the-line Nimbus Two Thousand broomstick had been locked in a cupboard under the stairs by Uncle Vernon the instant Harry had come home. **

**What did the Dursleys care if Harry lost his place on the House Quidditch team because he hadn't practiced all summer? **

**What was it to the Dursleys if Harry went back to school without any of his homework done? The Dursleys were what wizards called Muggles (not a drop of magical blood in their veins), and as far as they were concerned, having a wizard in the family was a matter of deepest shame. **

"The opposite of Death Eaters," Bill said curiously.

**Uncle Vernon had even padlocked Harry's owl, Hedwig, inside her cage, to stop her from carrying messages to anyone in the wizarding world.**

"That is cruel," Charlie huffed.

**Harry and Alex looked nothing like the rest of the family. Uncle Vernon was large and neckless, with an enormous black mustache;** **Aunt Petunia was horse-faced and bony; Dudley was blond, pink, and porky.**

**Alex was short and slender, her dark auburn hair falling in soft waves down her back and light hazel eyes. **

**Harry, on the other hand, was also small and skinny, but a few inches taller, with brilliant green eyes and jet-black hair that was always untidy. He wore round glasses, and on his forehead was a thin, lightning-shaped scar.**

Everyone kept from looking at the strange mark, knowing how much it irked Harry.

**It was this scar that made Harry so particularly unusual, even for a wizard. **

**This scar was the only hint of Harry's very mysterious past, of the reason he had been left on the Dursleys' doorstep eleven years before.**

**At the age of one year old, Harry had somehow survived a curse from the greatest Dark sorcerer of all time, Lord Voldemort, whose name most witches and wizards still feared to speak. **

"Just a name!" Harry said.

**Harry and Alex's parents had died in Voldemort's attack, but Harry had escaped with his lightning scar, and somehow - nobody understood why – Voldemort's powers had been destroyed the instant he had failed to kill Harry, allowing his younger sister to survive as well.**

**So the Potter children had been brought up by their dead mother's sister and her husband. They had spent ten years with the Dursleys, never understanding why they kept making odd things happen without meaning to, believing the Dursleys' story that Harry had gotten his scar in the car crash that had killed their parents.**

Everyone looked angry again, it was so disrespectful to lie about the way someone's parents died.

**And then, exactly a year ago, Hogwarts had written to Harry, and the whole story had come out. Harry had taken up his place at wizard school, where he, his scar and his sister were famous... **

"But I'm not as famous as you," Alex smirked.

"Oh shut it Alex," Harry said.

**but now the school year was over, and he was back with the Dursleys and Alex for the summer, back to being treated like a dog that had rolled in something smelly.**

Sirius smirked and Remus rolled his eyes at him.

**The Dursleys hadn't even remembered that today happened to be Harry's twelfth birthday. **

"Of course not," Ron said angrily.

**Of course, his hopes hadn't been high; they'd never given him a real present, let alone a cake - but to ignore it completely...**

"They did that to me too, while you were gone," Alex shrugged.

"You like my gift though," Harry grinned.

"Of course I did!" Alex smiled. Harry had gotten her a magic charm necklace, a locket that only opened for her. When they went to Hogwarts together Alex made sure to put a picture of them inside.

**At that moment, Uncle Vernon cleared his throat importantly and said, "Now, as we all know, today is a very important day." **

"He actually remembered?" Bill asked, surprise all over his face.

**Harry looked up, hardly daring to believe it. One look on Alex's face said she couldn't believe it either.**

**"This could well be the day I make the biggest deal of my career, "said Uncle Vernon.**

"What a git!" Hermione said loudly, surprising herself and a few others. She didn't notice much thought because she was fuming along with Ron and Ginny.

**Harry went back to his toast. **_**Of course**_**, he thought bitterly**_**, Uncle Vernon was talking about the stupid dinner party.**_** He'd been talking of nothing else for two weeks. Some rich builder and his wife were coming to dinner and Uncle Vernon was hoping to get a huge order from him (Uncle Vernon's company made drills).**

**"I think we should run through the schedule one more time," said Uncle Vernon. **

"A schedule for what?" asked several students around the Hall.

**"We should all be in position at eight o'clock. Petunia, you will be -."**

**"In the lounge," said Aunt Petunia promptly, "waiting to welcome them graciously to our home."**

"A schedule?" Percy asked.

"Everything must be planned," Alex said dryly.

**"Good, good. And Dudley."**

**"I'll be waiting to open the door." Dudley put on a foul, simpering smile. "May I take your coats, Mr. and Mrs. Mason."**

"Gross," the twins said together.

**"They'll **_**love**_** him!" cried Aunt Petunia rapturously**.

**"Excellent, Dudley," said Uncle Vernon. Then he rounded on Harry. "And **_**you two**_**." **

**"We'll be in our bedroom, making no noise and pretending we're not there," said Harry and Alex together, tonelessly.**

"Sorry?" Sirius asked, his voice steely.

"Oh, you heard right," Bill said angrily.

"That is just terrible!" Molly said.

**"Exactly," said Uncle Vernon nastily. "I will lead them into the lounge, introduce you, Petunia, and pour them -drinks. At eight- fifteen -" **

**"I'll announce dinner," said Aunt Petunia.**

**"And, Dudley, you'll say -"**

**"May I take you through to the dining room, Mrs. Mason," said Dudley, offering his fat arm to an invisible woman.**

**"My perfect little gentleman!" sniffed Aunt Petunia.**

"He is not perfect, little, or a gentleman. Mrs. Dursley you must be very mistaken," Percy said.

**"And **_**you two**_**," said Uncle Vernon viciously to Harry and Alex.**

**"We'll be in our room, making no noise and pretending we're not there," said Alex and Harry, dully.**

Everyone scowled again, but didn't say anything.

**"Precisely. Now, we should aim to get in a few good compliments at dinner. Petunia, any ideas?"**

**"Vernon tells me you're a **_**wonderful**_** golfer, Mr. Mason... Do tell me where you bought your dress, Mrs. Mason ..."**

**"Perfect. . . Dudley." **

**"How about -'We had to write an essay about our hero at school, Mr. Mason, and **_**I**_** wrote about **_**you**_**."**

"That is utterly ridiculous!" Ginny said incredulously.

**This was too much for Aunt Petunia, Alex and Harry. Aunt Petunia burst into tears and hugged her son, while Harry and Alex ducked under the table so they wouldn't see them laughing.**

"Smart," Bill nodded.

**"And you, boy, girl." **

"They have names!" Ron snapped impatiently.

**Harry fought to keep his face straight as he emerged and he saw Alex doing the same.**

"It was hard," Alex smiled.

**"We'll be in our room, making no noise and pretending we're not there," they said.**

**"Too right, you will," said Uncle Vernon forcefully. "The Masons don't know anything about you and it's going to stay that way. When dinner's over, you take Mrs. Mason back to the lounge for coffee, Petunia, and I'll bring the subject around to drills. With any luck, I'll have the deal signed and sealed before the news at ten. We'll be shopping for a vacation home in Majorca this time tomorrow."**

**Harry couldn't feel too excited about this. He didn't think the Dursleys would like him any better in Majorca than they did on Privet Drive.**

"They wouldn't have," Alex agreed.

**"Right - I'm off into town to pick up the dinner jackets for Dudley and me.** **And you," he snarled at Alex and Harry. "You stay out of your aunt's way while she's cleaning."**

"I'm surprised they didn't make you clean," Fred said.

Alex and Harry looked at each other, but didn't say anything

**Harry left through the back door, his sister on his tail. It was a brilliant, sunny day. Harry and Alex crossed the lawn, slumped down on the garden bench, and Alex sang under her breath:**

**"Happy birthday to you... happy birthday to you. . ."**

Everyone looked saddened.

**Harry looked over to his sister and gave her a small smile. **

"**Happy Birthday Harry," She said sadly.**

"**Thanks Allie," He said equally sad.**

**More than anything else at Hogwarts, more even than playing Quidditch, Harry missed his best friends, Ron Weasley and Hermione Granger. **

Ron and Hermione looked sadly over to Harry.

"We missed you too!" Hermione said.

"Why didn't you write to him or anything?" Remus asked.

"It will be explained," Ron sighed.

**They, however, didn't seem to be missing him at all. **

"We did too!" Hermione said angrily.

"I know! I know!" Harry said.

**Neither of them had written to him all summer, even though Ron had said he was going to ask Harry to come and stay. Alex was missing her friend Ginny, who was Ron's younger sister, as well. Ginny and Alex had never actually met, but they had been penpals for awhile. But once summer started, Ginny had quit writing.**

"Ron wrote at least once a week. Ginny twice," George nodded.

**Countless times, Harry had been on the point of unlocking Hedwig's cage by magic and sending her to Ron and Hermione with a letter, but it wasn't worth the risk. Underage wizards weren't allowed to use magic outside of school. **

**Harry hadn't told the Dursleys this; **

"Good," Sirius nodded.

**he knew it was only their terror that he might turn them all into dung beetles that stopped them from locking him and Alex in the cupboard under the stairs with his wand and broomstick. **

"If they ever try something like that again, send me an owl," Sirius said, cracking his knuckles.

**For the first couple of weeks back, Harry had enjoyed muttering nonsense words under his breath and watching Dudley tearing out of the room as fast as his fat legs would carry him, Alex trying to keep her giggles in. **

"That was also hard," Alex smiled.

**But the long silence from Ron and Hermione had made Harry feel so cut off from the magical world that even taunting Dudley had lost its appeal – **

"You must have been sad," Fred said.

**and now Ron and Hermione had forgotten his birthday.**

"We did not!" Ron and Hermione said.

"I know guys, this was like two, almost three, years ago," Harry said.

**What wouldn't he give now for a message from Hogwarts. From any witch or wizard. He'd almost be glad of a sight of his archenemy, Draco Malfoy,** **just to be sure it hadn't all been a dream...**

"I take that back now," Harry said in disgust.

**Not that his whole year at Hogwarts had been fun. At the very end of last term, Harry had come face-to-face with none other than Lord Voldemort himself. **

"And did not tell his sister about it," Alex said sharply and sent a glare to her brother.

**Voldemort might be a ruin of his former self, but he was still terrifying, still cunning, still determined to regain power. Harry had slipped through Voldemort's clutches for a second time, but it had been a narrow escape, and even now, weeks later, Harry kept waking in the night, drenched in cold sweat, wondering where Voldemort was now, remembering his livid face, his wide, mad eyes.**

Alex quit glaring at her brother and hugged him around the middle.

"You should have told me!" She muttered into his chest. Sometimes she really hated the fact that she slept so soundly.

**Harry suddenly sat bolt upright on the garden bench, attracting a strange look from Alex. **

"What is it?" Molly asked nervously.

**He had been staring absent-mindedly into the hedge - **_**and the hedge was staring back.**_

**Two enormous green eyes had appeared among the leaves.**

"**Alex!" He whispered. "Do you see that?"**

"**What? Oh!" Alex caught sight of the eyes as well and stared at them.**

**Harry jumped to his feet just as a jeering voice floated across the lawn.**

**"I know what day it is," sang Dudley, waddling toward him.**

"Glad he learned the days of the week," Percy said.

**The huge eyes blinked and vanished. **

**"What?" said Harry, not taking his eyes off the spot where they had been.**

**"I know what day it is," Dudley repeated, coming right up to him.**

**"Well done," said Alex, also staring at the spot the eyes used to be. "So you've finally learned the days of the week."**

Percy grinned at Alex and she grinned uncertainly back.

**"Today's your birthday," sneered Dudley. "How come you haven't got any cards. Haven't you even got friends at that freak place."**

"Oh yes he has," Ron and Hermione growled at the book.

**"Better not let your mum hear you talking about my school," said Harry coolly.**

**Dudley hitched up his trousers, which were slipping down his fat bottom.**

**"Why're you staring at the hedge," he said suspiciously.**

**"I'm trying to decide what would be the best spell to set it on fire," said Harry.**

"Good job," The twins said together

**Dudley stumbled backward at once, a look of panic on his fat face. Alex sat back and hid her smile behind her hand.**

**"You c-can't - Dad told you you're not to do m-magic - he said he'll chuck you out of the house - and you haven't got anywhere else to go - you haven't got any friends to take you -"**

"OH COURSE HE DOES," Hermione and Ron finally gave into their need to yell at the fat muggle boy.

**"**_**Jiggery pokery!"**_** said Harry in a fierce voice. "**_**Hocus pocus – squiggly wiggly -"**_

The only two not laughing at the 'spells' were Dumbledore and Minerva. No one else could hold it in.

**"MUUUUUUM!" howled Dudley, tripping over his feet as he dashed back toward the house. "MUUUUM! He's doing you know what!"**

**Alex was full on laughing, but Harry paid dearly for his moment of fun. **

"What does that mean?" The twins asked, laughter gone.

**As neither Dudley nor the hedge was in any way hurt, Aunt Petunia knew he hadn't really done magic, but he still had to duck as she aimed a heavy blow at his head with the soapy frying pan. **

"She did what?" Arthur growled.

"What if she had hit you?" The twins said angrily.

"Could have fractured your skull!" Hermione shrieked and everyone fumed.

"She didn't hit me, I'm fine," Harry pointed out.

"She _could_ have hit you," Ron said, rage showing on his face.

"Please just read Bill," Alex said.

**Then she gave him work to do, with the promise he wouldn't eat again until he'd finished. Doing the same for Alex, even though she did not do anything.**

"You cannot starve children as punishment," Molly shrieked, clearly upset.

**While Dudley lolled around watching and eating ice cream, together Harry and Alex cleaned the windows, washed the car, mowed the lawn, trimmed the flowerbeds, pruned and watered the roses, and repainted the garden bench. **

Everyone glared venomously at the book, wishing Petunia Dursley were here to hex.

**The sun blazed overhead, burning the back of Harry's neck. Harry knew he shouldn't have risen to Dudley's bait, but Dudley had said the very thing Harry had been thinking himself... maybe he didn't have any friends at Hogwarts ...**

"Harry James Potter! You. Have. Friends." Ron said quite seriously.

"Don't worry, mate, I know," Harry smiled at him.

_**Wish they could see famous Harry Potter now**_**, he thought savagely as he spread manure on the flower beds, his back aching, sweat running down his face.**

"That doesn't sound healthy," Molly fretted.

**It was half past seven, in the evening when at last, exhausted, he heard Aunt Petunia calling him and Alex in.**

"You were out to _nightfall_?" Sirius asked.

"Yea," Alex said.

Sirius just growled in frustration and glared at the book.

**"Get in here! And walk on the newspaper!" **

**Harry moved gladly into the shade of the gleaming kitchen with his sister. On top of the fridge stood tonight's pudding: a huge mound of whipped cream and sugared violets. **

"Gosh dang pudding!" Harry said under his breath and the people on either side of him heard. Sirius just looked at him like he was crazy and Alex stifled a snort.

**A loin of roast pork was sizzling in the oven.**

**"Eat quickly! The Masons will be here soon!" snapped Aunt Petunia, pointing to two slices of bread and a lump of cheese on the kitchen table and to another one next to his for Alex. **

"That is not enough food," Molly said deceptively calm.

**She was already wearing a salmon-pink cocktail dress.**

**Harry and Alex washed their hands and bolted down their pitiful suppers. The moment they had finished, Aunt Petunia whisked away their plates. "Upstairs! Hurry!" **

"Give them a second to breathe!" Ginny said.

**As he passed the door to the living room, Harry caught a glimpse of Uncle Vernon and Dudley in bow ties and dinner jackets. **

**He and his sister had only just reached the upstairs landing when the door bell rang and Uncle Vernon's furious face appeared at the foot of the stairs.**

**"Remember, boy - girl - one sound -"**

**Harry crossed to his bedroom on tiptoe with Alex**

**slipped inside, closed the door, and turned to collapse on their shared bed.**

"You guys deserve more than one bed," Ron said angrily. "Especially if you have to work that hard."

**The trouble was, there was already someone sitting on it.**

"What?" Remus asked.

Bill handed the book the Charlie, since Ginny had decided to stay between Alex and Ron.

"**Dobby's Warning**," Charlie said.

I am uploading this at like 1:30 in the morning so there may be a few mistakes… Let me know what you think!


	2. Chapter 2

OHMYGOODNESSGRACIOUS! I'm excited for this chapter. Please R&R

Don't own. JK Rowling does.

**"Dobby's Warning**"

"Who's Dobby?" Charlie paused to ask.

"Probably the person sitting on their bed," Bill said.

"Oh, well that would make sense," Charlie said, then started to read again.

**Harry managed not to shout out, but it was a close thing. **

"Good, don't make too much noise," Molly said worriedly.

**He could tell by the quiet gasp from Alex she had barely caught herself in time.**

"I was so close to screaming," Alex nodded.

**The little creature on the bed had large, bat-like ears and bulging green eyes the size of tennis balls. **

"A house-elf?" Sirius asked, confused.

**Harry knew instantly that this was what had been watching him out of the garden hedge that morning.**

**Harry and Alex stared at the creature and it stared back, Harry heard Dudley's voice from the hall.**

**"May I take your coats, Mr. and Mrs. Mason?"**

"Then they run away in fear," Fred said, grinning.

**The creature slipped off the bed and bowed so low that the end of its long, thin nose touched the carpet. Harry noticed that it was wearing what looked like an old pillowcase, with rips for arm- and leg-holes.**

"Slavery," Hermione said angrily.

**"Er - hello," said Harry nervously.**

**"Harry Potter and Alexandra Potter!" said the creature in a high-pitched voice Harry was sure would carry down the stairs. "So long has Dobby wanted to meet you, sir and miss... Such an honor it is . . . ."**

**"Th-thank you," said Harry, edging along the wall, his sister following and sinking into his desk chair, next to Hedwig, who was asleep in her large cage. He wanted to ask, "What are you?" **

"Harry!" Molly and Hermione said.

"I didn't say that! I do have manners," Harry said.

**but thought it would sound too rude, so instead he said, "Who are you?"**

**"Dobby, sir. Just Dobby. Dobby the house-elf," said the creature.**

**"Oh - really?" said Harry. Alex was just standing behind Harry's chair, looking at Dobby with wide eyes. **

"The only magicalness I had ever seen was Hagrid!" Alex huffed as people laughed at her.

"Magicalness?" Ginny asked, giggling.

Alex smiled and laughed, "I didn't even realize I said that."

**"Er - I don't want to be rude or anything, but - this isn't a great time for us to have a house-elf in our bedroom."**

**Aunt Petunia's high, false laugh sounded from the living room. **

Harry and Alex groaned.

**The elf hung his head.**

"You hurt his feelings," Hermione said with a frown.

"I didn't mean to! But it really wasn't a great time," Harry said.

"**Harry!" Alex hissed in his ear. "You hurt his feelings!"**

**"Not that I'm not pleased to meet you," said Harry quickly, "but, er, is there any particular reason you're here?"**

**"Oh, yes, sir," said Dobby earnestly. "Dobby has come to tell you, sir ... it is difficult, sir ... Dobby wonders where to begin . . . ."**

**"Sit down," said Harry politely, pointing at the bed.**

"Oh no," Sirius said.

"What?" Remus asked.

"House-elves don't expect that and will probably react badly," Sirius winced.

**To his horror, the elf burst into tears - very noisy tears.**

_**"S-sit down!"**_** he wailed. "**_**Never**_** ... **_**never ever**_**. . . "**

"That is awful!" Hermione sniffed angrily.

**Harry thought he heard the voices downstairs falter.**

"Oh, please be quiet," Molly said, worriedly.

**Alex glared at Harry and moved to kneel next to Dobby. She hesitantly put her arm around the house-elf.**

"That is such an Alex thing to do," Ginny said fondly, while Hermione smiled proudly at Alex.

**"I'm sorry," he whispered, "I didn't mean to offend you or anything -"**

**"Offend Dobby!" choked the elf. "Dobby has never been asked to sit down by a wizard - like an equal -"**

"Why shouldn't he be?" Ginny asked dangerously.

**Harry, trying to say "Shh!" and look comforting at the same time,**

"You were not helping," Alex said matter-of-factly.

**as Alex ushered Dobby back onto the bed where he sat hiccoughing, looking like a large and very ugly doll. **

**At last he managed to control himself, and sat with his great eyes fixed on Harry in an expression of watery adoration.**

**"You can't have met many decent wizards," said Harry, trying to cheer him up.**

**Dobby shook his head. Then, without warning, he leapt up and started banging his head furiously on the window, shouting, "**_**Bad**_** Dobby! **_**Bad**_** Dobby!"**

**"Don't - what are you doing?" Harry hissed, springing up and pulling Dobby back onto the bed - Hedwig had woken up with a particularly loud screech and was beating her wings wildly against the bars of her cage.**

**"Dobby had to punish himself, sir," said the elf, who had gone slightly cross-eyed. "Dobby almost spoke ill of his family, sir . . . ."**

**"Your family?" Alex asked in confusion.**

**"The wizard family Dobby serves, sir... Dobby is a house-elf - bound to serve one house and one family forever . ...**

Hermione mumbled under her breathe about slavery.

**"Do they know you're here?" asked Harry curiously.**

**Dobby shuddered.**

"I'm guessing not," Fred said.

**"Oh, no, sir, no ... Dobby will have to punish himself most grievously for coming to see you, sir. Dobby will have to shut his ears in the oven door for this. If they ever knew, sir _"**

"That's terrible!" Charlie said angrily.

**"But won't they notice if you shut your ears in the oven door?" Alex asked.**

**"Dobby doubts it, miss. Dobby is always having to punish himself for something, miss. They lets Dobby get on with it, miss. Sometimes they reminds me to do extra punishments ..."**

"That is just horrible," Bill said in disgust.

**"But why don't you leave? Escape?" asked Harry.**

"They can't," Hermione crossed her arms angrily.

**"A house-elf must be set free, sir. And the family will never set Dobby free ... Dobby will serve the family until he dies, sir . . . ."**

**Harry and Alex stared.**

**"And I thought we had it bad staying here for another four weeks," he said. **

"You do," Sirius said darkly.

**"This makes the Dursleys sound almost human. **

"No," Ron, Ginny, and Hermione said with scowls.

**Can't anyone help you? Can't I?"**

**Almost at once, Harry wished he hadn't spoken. Dobby dissolved again into wails of gratitude.**

**"Please," Alex whispered frantically, "please be quiet. If the Dursleys hear anything, if they know you're here -"**

**"Harry Potter asks if he can help Dobby ... Dobby has heard of the Potter's greatness, sir, but of your goodness, Dobby never knew ..."**

**Harry, who was feeling distinctly hot in the face, said, "Whatever you've heard about my greatness is a load of rubbish. I'm not even top of my year at Hogwarts; that's Hermione, she -" But he stopped quickly, because thinking about Hermione was painful.**

Hermione's eyes widened, "Oh, Harry! I'm so sorry."

Harry looked at her strangely, "For what?"

"The letters!"

"Hermione," Harry said exasperatedly," You _know_ that wasn't your fault."

"But… I just-"

"There is nothing to apologize for," Harry said firmly.

**"Harry Potter is humble and modest," said Dobby reverently, his orb-like eyes aglow. "Harry Potter speaks not of his triumph over He-Who- Must-Not-Be-Named -"**

"It wasn't even me," Harry whispered sadly. "It was mum."

Alex smiled sadly and rested her head on her brother's shoulder.

**"Voldemort?" said Alex.**

"House-elves are afraid of the name too," Percy said.

"Yea, I figured that one out," Alex said dryly.

**Dobby clapped his hands over his bat ears and moaned, "Ah, speak not the name, miss! Speak not the name!"**

**"Sorry" said Harry quickly. "I know lots of people don't like it. My friend Ron -"**

**He stopped again. Thinking about Ron was painful, too.**

"Don't even say it Ron," Harry glared at his red-haired best friend as he opened his mouth.

Ron grinned weakly.

**Dobby leaned toward Harry, his eyes wide as headlights.**

"**Dobby heard tell," he said hoarsely, "that Harry Potter met the Dark Lord for a second time just weeks ago ... that Harry Potter escaped **_**yet again**_**. "**

Alex glared at Harry, he better be glad she missed that.

"**I don't know what you're talking about," He said quickly as Dobby's eyes suddenly shone with tears.**

"**Ah, sir," he gasped, dabbing his face with a corner of the grubby pillowcase he was wearing. "Harry Potter is valiant and bold! He has braved so many dangers already! But Dobby has come to protect Harry Potter and Alexandra Potter, to warn them, even if he does have to shut his ears in the oven door later... **_**Harry Potter and Alexandra Potter must not go back to Hogwarts."**_

"What?" Sirius asked.

"It will explain later," Alex said.

**There was a silence broken only by the chink of knives and forks from downstairs and the distant rumble of Uncle Vernon's voice.**

"**What?" Alex finally broke that silence.**

**"W-what?" Harry stammered after her. "But I've got to go back - term starts on September first. Alex hasn't even been yet. It's all that's keeping us going. You don't know what it's like here. We don't **_**belong**_** here. We belong in your world - at Hogwarts."**

"Yes you do," Ginny and Ron said firmly.

**"No, no, no," squeaked Dobby, shaking his head so hard his ears flapped. "Harry Potter and Alexandra Potter must stay where they is safe. They is too great, too good, to lose. If Harry Potter or Alexandra Potter goes back to Hogwarts, they will be in mortal danger."**

"What?" Sirius asked, surprised.

"Why?" Remus asked suspiciously.

"It we be explained later," Alex sighed, tired of saying that.

**"Why?" said Alex in surprise.**

**"There is a plot, Alexandra Potter. A plot to make most terrible things happen at Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry this year," whispered Dobby, suddenly trembling all over. "Dobby has known it for months, miss. **

"A plot?" Bill asked, he didn't know what happened in his little sister's first year.

"A terrible plot," Ron said darkly. That plot had hurt four people Ron had sworn to himself to protect, Hermione, Ginny, Alex, and Harry.

**Potters must not put himself in peril. They is too important, miss!"**

**"What terrible things?" said Harry at once. "Who's plotting them?"**

**Dobby made a funny choking noise and then banged his head frantically against the wall.**

"Oh Dobby!" Hermione sighed.

**"All right!" cried Harry, grabbing the elf's arm to stop him. "You can't tell us. I understand. But why are you warning us?" A sudden, unpleasant thought struck him. "Hang on - this hasn't got anything to do with Vol - sorry - with You-Know-Who, has it?** **You could just shake or nod," he added hastily as Dobby's head tilted worryingly close to the wall again.**

"Good loophole," Charlie said with a nod.

**Slowly, Dobby shook his head.**

**"Not -not **_**He- Who-Must-Not-Be-Named,**_** sir -'**

**But Dobby's eyes were wide and he seemed to be trying to give Harry a hint. **

"That was one terrible clue," Harry muttered.

**Harry, however, was completely lost.**

**"He hasn't got a brother, has he?"**

"He doesn't," Dumbledore said reassuringly, seeing the panicked looks.

**Dobby shook his head, his eyes wider than ever.**

"I'm not seeing the hint," Charlie said confusedly.

"You'll get it later," Hermione said.

**"Well then, I can't think who else would have a chance of making horrible things happen at Hogwarts," said Harry. "I mean, there's Dumbledore, for one thing - you know who Dumbledore is, don't you?"**

People snorted and Harry glared at them.

"I didn't know if house-elves knew about him."

**Dobby bowed his head.**

**"Albus Dumbledore is the greatest headmaster Hogwarts has ever had. Dobby knows it, sir. Dobby has heard Dumbledore's powers rival those of He-Who-Must-Not-Be-Named at the height of his strength. But, sir" - Dobby's voice dropped to an urgent whisper - "there are powers Dumbledore doesn't ... powers no decent wizard. . ."**

**And before Harry or Alex could stop him, Dobby bounded off the bed, seized the desk lamp, and started beating himself around the head with earsplitting yelps.**

"What?" Charlie asked.

"He said too much," Sirius explained.

Hermione sniffed for the millionth time.

**A sudden silence fell downstairs. **

"Oh no," Ginny said nervously.

**Two seconds later Harry, heart thudding madly, heard Uncle Vernon coming into the hall, calling, "Dudley must have left his television on again, the little tyke!"**

**"Quick! In the closet!" hissed Harry, stuffing Dobby in, shutting the door, and flinging himself onto the bed next to his sister just as the door handle turned.**

"Close call," Fred said nervously, though he wanted to know how the bars got on their window.

**"What - the - **_**devil**_** - are - you - doing?" said Uncle Vernon through gritted teeth, his face horribly close to Harry's. **

"Get away from him," Ron and Hermione said dangerously.

**"You've just ruined the punch line of my Japanese golfer joke... **

"How terrible," George rolled his eyes.

**One more sound and you'll wish you'd never been born, boy you too girl!"**

"They have names!" Ginny snapped, at wits end. "Use them you obese, mustached, stupid, muggle whale!"

A lot of people turned to look at Ginny; no one had _really_ heard her loose her tempter, besides Alex.

"What?" she asked crossing her arms over her chest. "He was getting to me."

Alex laughed, "You guys haven't seen anything yet! Watch Ginny _really_ loose her temper."

**He stomped flat-footed from the room.**

**Shaking, Alex let Dobby out of the closet.**

Everyone looked nervously at the Potters, they shouldn't be that afraid of their uncle.

**"See what it's like here?" Harry said. "See why we've got to go back to Hogwarts? It's the only place we've got - well, I **_**think**_** we've got friends. "**

"Oh course you do!" yelled the twins, Ron, Hermione, and Ginny.

"We know guys," Alex said smiling.

**"Friends who don't even **_**write**_** to Alexandra Potter or Harry Potter?" said Dobby slyly.**

"And how would he know?" Percy asked suspiciously.

**"I expect they've just been - wait a minute," said Alex, frowning. "How do you know out friends haven't been writing to us?"**

**Dobby shuffled his feet.**

"Guilty," said Charlie.

**"Harry Potter and Alexandra Potter mustn't be angry with Dobby. Dobby did it for the best - "**

_**"Have you been stopping our letters?"**_** Harry asked angrily.**

**"Dobby has them here, sir," said the elf. Stepping nimbly out of Harry's reach, he pulled a thick wad of envelopes from the inside of the pillowcase he was wearing. Harry could make out Hermione's neat writing, Ron's untidy scrawl, Ginny's quick script and even a scribble that looked as though it was from the Hogwarts gamekeeper, Hagrid.**

**Dobby blinked anxiously up at Harry and Alex.**

**"Harry Potter and Alexandra Potter mustn't be angry... Dobby hoped ... if Harry Potter and Alexandra Potter thought their friends had forgotten them... Harry Potter and Alexandra Potter might not want to go back to school, sir... miss…"**

"It would take way more than that to keep me from Hogwarts," Alex said stubbornly.

**Harry wasn't listening. **

**He made a grab for the letters, but Dobby jumped out of reach.**

**"Harry Potter will have them, sir, if he gives Dobby his word that he and Alexandra Potter will not return to Hogwarts. Ah, sir, this is a danger you must not face! Say you won't go back, sir!"**

**"No," said Harry angrily. "Give me our friends' letters!"**

**"Then Harry Potter and Alexandra Potter leaves Dobby no choice," said the elf sadly.**

**Before Harry or Alex could move, Dobby had darted to the bedroom door, pulled it open, and sprinted down the stairs.**

"No!" Molly said.

**Mouths dry, stomachs lurching, Harry sprang after him, trying not to make a sound, followed by his equally silent sister. He jumped the last six steps, landing catlike on the hall carpet, looking around for Dobby. **

"I couldn't keep up," Alex grumbled.

**From the dining room he heard Uncle Vernon saying, ". . . tell Petunia that very funny story about those American plumbers, Mr. Mason. She's been dying to hear. . . "**

**Harry ran up the hall into the kitchen and felt his stomach disappear and he heard Alex's almost silent gasp.**

"What?" George asked with wide eyes.

**Aunt Petunia's masterpiece of a pudding, the mountain of cream and sugared violets, was floating up near the ceiling. **

"Don't let it fall," Sirius said worriedly.

**On top of a cupboard in the corner crouched Dobby.**

**"No," croaked Alex. "Please... they'll kill us…."**

"Oh so this is how-" Fred started.

"SHH!" Alex and Harry said hurriedly.

"I wasn't going to say it!" Fred huffed.

"Say what?" Sirius asked suspiciously.

"Nothing," George said quickly.

**"Harry Potter must say he and Alexandra Potter is not going back to school -"**

**"Dobby... please..."**

**"Say it, sir -"**

"Good thing you didn't," Bill said. "He probably would have put a magical contract on the words."

"What's a magical contract?" Alex asked.

"Pretty much the same thing as an Unbreakable Vow," Ron said.

**"I can't -"**

**Dobby gave them a tragic look.** **"Then Dobby must do it, sir, for Potters' own good."**

"No matter how much he tried to help, Dobby always ends up hurting Harry or Alex," Ron whispered to Hermione, who nodded in agreement.

**The pudding fell to the floor with a heart-stopping crash. **

**Cream splattered the windows and walls as the dish shattered. With a crack like a whip, Dobby vanished.**

**There were screams from the dining room and Uncle Vernon burst into the kitchen to find Harry, rigid with shock, covered from head to foot in Aunt Petunia's pudding. Alex had been standing behind Harry and missed most of the blow.**

**At first, it looked as though Uncle Vernon would manage to gloss the whole thing over. ("Just our nephew and our niece - very disturbed – both of them - **

The Marauders, the twins, Ginny, and Hermione scowled at the book.

"They are not disturbed! You are you whale!" Ron yelled at the book.

**meeting strangers upsets them, so we kept them upstairs…") He shooed the shocked Masons back into the dining room, promised Harry he would flay him to within an inch of his life when the Masons had left, **

Many looked at Harry with wide eyes, who just shook his head. Uncle Vernon was still to scared of wizards to do anything physical.

**and handed him and his sister each a mop. Aunt Petunia dug some ice cream out of the freezer and Harry, still shaking, started scrubbing the kitchen clean with his sister.**

**Uncle Vernon might still have been able to make his deal - if it hadn't been for the owl.**

"What owl?" Charlie asked.

Bill groaned, "They probably thought Harry preformed magic."

"I don't understand," Alex said. "It could have been me doing accidental magic, couldn't it?"

"Well, usually by the age of about ten accidental magic stops. And since Harry is there, they will assume it was him," Percy explained.

**Aunt Petunia was just passing around a box of after-dinner mints when a huge barn owl swooped through the dining room window, dropped a letter on Mrs. Mason's head, and swooped out again. **

"Why couldn't Dobby stop _that_ letter?" Harry asked.

**Mrs. Mason screamed like a banshee and ran from the house shouting about lunatics. Mr. Mason stayed just long enough to tell the Dursleys that his wife was mortally afraid of birds of all shapes and sizes, and to ask whether this was their idea of a joke.**

**Harry stood in front of his sister in the kitchen, clutching the mop for support, as Uncle Vernon advanced on him, a demonic glint in his tiny eyes.**

"Stay away from them," Ginny said, eyes flashing.

**"Read it!" he hissed evilly, brandishing the letter the owl had delivered. "Go on - read it!"**

**Harry took it. It did not contain birthday greetings.**

**Dear Mr. Potter,**

**We have received intelligence that a Hover Charm was used at your place of residence this evening at twelve minutes past nine.**

**As you know, underage wizards are not permitted to perform spells outside school, and further spellwork on your part may lead to expulsion from said school (Decree for the Reasonable Restriction of Underage Sorcery, 1875, Paragraph C).**

**We would also ask you to remember that any magical activity that risks notice by members of the non-magical community (Muggles) is a serious offense under section 13 of the International Confederation of Warlocks' Statute of Secrecy.**

**Enjoy your holidays! **

"Well, that makes up for telling him he might be expelled," Sirius said sarcastically.

**Yours sincerely,**

**Mafalda Hopkirk**

**IMPROPER USE OF MAGIC OFFICE**

_**Ministry of Magic**_

**Harry looked up from the letter and gulped, allowing his sister to read over his shoulder.**

**"You didn't tell us you weren't allowed to use magic outside school," said Uncle Vernon, a mad gleam dancing in his eyes. **

"Oh no," Ginny said nervously.

**"Forgot to mention it... Slipped your mind, I daresay..." **

**He was bearing down on Harry like a great bulldog, **

"Why does he always do things like that to Harry?" Hermione asked.

Harry shrugged, "He hates me more I guess."

**all his teeth bared. "Well, I've got news for you, boy... I'm locking you and that girl up... **

"What does that mean?" Bill asked angrily.

"Just what it says," Fred said, scowling fiercely.

**You're never going back to that school... never... and if you try and magic yourself out - they'll expel you! You'll never even get to see it girl!"**

**And laughing like a maniac, he dragged Harry and Alex back upstairs.**

"For the last time," George spat. "_Get away from them_."

**Uncle Vernon was as bad as his word. The following morning, he paid a man to fit bars on Alex and Harry's window. **

"HE DID WHAT?" Sirius roared.

Molly was shaking with rage, along with many others, and suddenly looked to the twins.

"Oh boys! I'm so sorry! I should have believed you," she said, close to tears.

"It's okay mum," Fred said.

"Just know we wouldn't lie about stuff like this," George continued.

"When I get my hands on those muggles…" Minerva muttered under her breath.

**He himself fitted a cat-flap in the bedroom door, so that small amounts of food could be pushed inside three times a day. **

**They let Harry and Alex out to use the bathroom morning and evening. **

"And what if they had to go between then?" Ginny asked, her face scarlet and her whole body shaking.

**Otherwise, they were locked in the room around the clock.**

**Three days later,** **the Dursleys were showing no sign of relenting, and Harry couldn't see any way out of his situation. He lay on the floor watching the sun sinking behind the bars on the window and wondered miserably what was going to happen to him.**

"Why won't you just sleep on the bed?" Alex asked angrily.

"I don't need to," Harry said stubbornly. Alex rolled her eyes and glared at her brother.

**What was the good of magicking himself out of his room if Hogwarts would expel him for doing it? **

**Alex was silent most of the time and Harry was starting to worry. Never getting to actually meet in person one of the only friends she ever had, and not getting to see Hogwarts was taking a toll on her. **

"It was really terrible," Alex said sadly.

**Harry tried to comfort her, yet life at Privet Drive had reached an all-time low. Now that the Dursleys knew they weren't going to wake up as fruit bats, they had lost their only weapon. **

**Dobby might have saved the Potters from horrible happenings at Hogwarts, but the way things were going, they'd probably starve to death anyway.**

**The cat-flap rattled and Aunt Petunias hand appeared, pushing two bowls of canned soup into the room. Harry, whose insides were aching with hunger, jumped off his bed and seized them, handing one to his sister. The soup was stone-cold, but he drank half of his in one gulp. Then he crossed the room to Hedwig's cage and tipped the soggy vegetables at the bottom of the bowl into her empty food tray. **

Charlie sent a half smile to Harry.

**She ruffled her feathers and gave him a look of deep disgust.**

**"It's no good turning your beak up at it - that's all we've got," said Harry grimly.**

**He put the empty bowl back on the floor next to the cat-flap and lay back down on the floor, somehow even hungrier than he had been before the soup. Alex just sat on the bed and sipped her cold soup silently.**

**Supposing they were still alive in another four weeks,**

Hermione and Ron glared at Harry.

"Don't _think_ like that!" Hermione told his sternly.

"I can't really control it," Harry told her.

**what would happen if they didn't turn up at Hogwarts? Would someone be sent to see why he hadn't come back and his sister never came? Would they be able to make the Dursleys let them go? **

"Your head of house would come to check in on you. And seeing the situation you were in, I would immediately remove you from the house and call the muggle authorities," Minerva said, her nostrils while and flaring.

**The room was growing dark. Exhausted, stomach rumbling, mind spinning over the same unanswerable questions, Harry fell into an uneasy sleep.**

**He dreamed that he was on show in a zoo, with a card reading UNDERAGE WIZARD attached to his cage. People goggled through the bars at him as he lay, starving and weak, on a bed of straw. He saw Dobby's face in the crowd and shouted out, asking for help, but Dobby called, "Harry Potter is safe there, sir!" and vanished. Then the Dursleys appeared and Dudley rattled the bars of the cage, laughing at him. The worst part was his sister laying next to him in a permanent vegetable like state.**

"Why do you always have such strange dreams?" Alex asked him.

"I have no idea," Harry replied.

"Maybe it's because he has talent in divination," Ron said, grinning.

Hermione giggled and Harry hit Ron on the shoulder.

"Don't _ever_ insinuate that _ever_ again!" Harry said in disgust.

**"Stop it," Harry muttered as the rattling pounded in his sore head. "Leave me alone... cut it out... I'm trying to sleep . . . ."**

**He opened his eyes. Moonlight was shining through the bars on the window. And someone was goggling through the bars at him: a freckle-faced, red-haired, long-nosed someone.**

"Ron?" Bill asked. "What are you doing there?"

"It will explain," Ron said.

**Ron Weasley was outside Harry's window.**

"Thank Merlin for rescue," Remus said in relief.

Charlie passed the book to Percy and he read, "**The Burrow**."


	3. Chapter 3

I'M BACK! FOR GOOD THIS TIME! I'm so so so so so so sooooo sorry! That long break will not happen again I swear! I'm sorry if you are following my other stories because I am going to be focusing on this one and this series. Here is the FINAL RESULTS of my poll:

**Fred and Fred lives -58%**

Dean – 9%

Neville – 9%

George – 8%

OC – 6%

Seamus – 2%

Fred and Fred still dies – 2%

Fred, Fred dies then she meets someone else – 1%

So we have an obvious winner: )

Without further ado-

"**The Burrow**," Percy said clearly.

"_**Ron**_**!" breathed Harry, creeping to the window and pushing it up so they could talk through the bars. "Ron, how did you - What the -?"**

Ron and the twins couldn't help but snicker.

"Your face was priceless," George grinned.

"Not as funny as the look on Alex's when she finally came to the land of the living," Fred laughed outright and Alex rolled her eyes at him.

**Harry's mouth fell open as the full impact of what he was seeing hit him.** **Ron was leaning out of the back window of an old turquoise car, which was parked in midair.**

"What?" Charlie gasped.

"You stole Dad's car?" Bill asked, astonished.

"I was worried," Ron shrugged.

"So were we," Fred nodded.

"Remember when we showed up at your house on my motorcycle?" Sirius grinned at Remus, who laughed.

"Gave me a heart attack you did."

**Grinning at Harry from the front seats were Fred and George, Ron's elder twin brothers.**

**"All right, Harry?" asked George.**

**"What's been going on?" said Ron. "Why haven't you been answering my letters and why hasn't you sister answered Ginny's? We've both asked you both to stay about twelve times, and then Dad came home and said you'd got an official warning for using magic in front of Muggles -"**

**"It wasn't me - and how did he know?"**

**"He works for the Ministry," **

"How did you find out Mr. Weasley?" Alex asked curiously.

"Ron and Ginny had both spoke their concerns many times and I made a point to listen out for you two," Mr. Weasley explained.

"Thanks," Harry grinned.

**said Ron. "You know we're not supposed to do spells outside school -"**

**"Bit rich coming from you," said Harry, staring at the floating car.**

**"Oh, this doesn't count," said Ron. "We're only borrowing this. It's Dad's, we didn't enchant it. But doing magic in front of those Muggles you live with -"**

**"I told you, I didn't - but it'll take too long to explain now look, can you tell them at Hogwarts that the Dursleys have locked me** **up and**** won't let me come back, and obviously I can't magic myself out, because the Ministry'Il think that's the second spell I've done in three days, so -"**

**"Stop gibbering," said Ron. "We've come to take you home with us."**

**"But you can't magic me out either -" **

"I like that phrase Harry," Hermione grinned. "Magic yourself out."

Harry laughed, "Whatever."

**"We don't need to," said Ron, jerking his head toward the front seat and grinning. "You forget who I've got with me."**

"You underestimate us?" Fred said in mock horror.

"I can't believe I missed all of this!" Alex grumbled.

**"Tie that around the bars," said Fred, throwing the end of a rope to Harry.**

**"If the Dursleys wake up, I'm dead," said Harry as he tied the rope tightly around a bar and Fred revved up the car.**

**"Don't worry," said Fred, "and stand back."**

**Harry moved back into the shadows next to Hedwig, who seemed to have realized how important this was and kept still and silent. **

"She's smart," Charlie smiled.

**The car revved louder and louder and suddenly, with a crunching noise, the bars were pulled clean out of the window as Fred drove straight up in the air. Harry ran back to the window to see the bars dangling a few feet above the ground. Panting, Ron hoisted them up into the car.**

**Harry listened anxiously, but there was no sound from the Dursleys' bedroom.**

**When the bars were safely in the back seat with Ron, Fred reversed as close as possible to Harry's window.**

**"Get in," Ron said. "Where's Alex?"**

**"She's here, still sleeping. But all my Hogwarts stuff - my wand - my broomstick -"**

**"Where is it?"**

**"Locked in the cupboard under the stairs, and I can't get out of this room -"**

**"No problem," said George from the front passenger seat. "Out of the way, Harry."**

**Fred and George climbed catlike through the window into Harry's room, glancing at the sleeping girl on the bed. **

"**She's still sleeping?" Fred asked. **

"**I'll wake her up, you guys just hurry," Harry responded. **

**You had to hand it to them, thought Harry, as George took an ordinary hairpin from his pocket and started to pick the lock.**

Fred and George grinned.

**"A lot of wizards think it's a waste of time, knowing this sort of Muggle trick," said Fred, "but we feel they're skills worth learning, even if they are a bit slow."**

**There was a small click and the door swung open.**

"How did you learn that?" Molly asked suspiciously.

"Percy," they said without hesitation.

"Thanks for selling me out," Percy said sarcastically, while many looked at him in surprise. "I learned from Charlie."

"Bill," Charlie declared.

"Dad!" Bill blurted.

"Arthur!" Molly exclaimed.

"It came in handy didn't it?" Arthur defended. "Fascinating isn't it?"

Molly rolled her eyes and Percy decided to start reading.

**"So - we'll get your trunk - you grab anything you need from your room and hand it out to Ron," whispered George.**

**"Watch out for the bottom stair - it creaks," Harry whispered back as the twins disappeared onto the dark landing.**

**Harry dashed across their room, shaking his sister urgently.**

"**Alex!" He whispered loudly. After several rough shakes, she groaned and opened her eyes.**

"**What?" Alex demanded. **

"**Grab everything you need for Hogwarts and pass them to Ron." Then he went to help Fred and George heave his trunk up the stairs. Harry heard Uncle Vernon cough.**

"Yeah, I was totally confused," Alex said.

**At last, panting, they reached the landing, then carried the trunk through Harry's room to the open window. Fred climbed back into the car to pull with Ron, and Harry and George pushed from the bedroom side, while Alex was wildly throwing things into a bag of her own. Inch by inch, the trunk slid through the window.**

**Uncle Vernon coughed again.**

**"A bit more," panted Fred, who was pulling from inside the car.**

**"One good push -"**

**Harry and George threw their shoulders against the trunk and it slid out of the window into the back seat of the car.**

**"Okay, let's go," George whispered, grabbing the bag from Alex. He helped her into the car and jumped in himself.**

**But as Harry climbed onto the windowsill there came a sudden loud screech from behind him,** **followed immediately by the thunder of Uncle Vernon's voice.**

**"THAT RUDDY OWL!" **

**"I've forgotten Hedwig!" **

"How did you do that?" Sirius asked curiously.

"I was more concerned about getting Alex in," Harry replied, to which Alex rolled her eyes.

**Harry tore back across the room as the landing light clicked on – he snatched up Hedwig's cage, dashed to the window, and passed it out to Alex. He was scrambling back onto the chest of drawers when Uncle Vernon hammered on the unlocked door and it crashed open.**

"This is bad," Remus said worriedly.

**For a split second, Uncle Vernon stood framed in the doorway; then he let out a bellow like an angry bull and dived at Harry, grabbing him by the ankle.**

"He couldn't just let you go could he?" Hermione glared.

**Alex, Ron, and George seized Harry's arms and pulled as hard as they could, and Fred grabbed the steering wheel to keep the car from crashing back into the side of the house. **

"Thanks guys," Harry smiled.

"Anytime mate," Ron smiled back, but secretly he was remembering the desperate, scared look on Harry's face. He would have hexed the muggle before he let Harry stay there.

"We would never just leave you there," George confirmed.

"I wouldn't have let them," Alex said matter-of-factly.

**"Petunia!" roared Uncle Vernon. "They're getting away! THEY'RE GETTING AWAY!"**

**But the Weasleys and Alex gave a gigantic tug and Harry's leg slid out of Uncle Vernon's grasp. As soon as Harry was in the car and had slammed the door shut Ron yelled, "Put your foot down, Fred!" and the car shot suddenly toward the moon.**

**Harry couldn't believe it - they were free. He rolled down the window, the night air whipping his hair, and looked back at the shrinking rooftops of Privet Drive. Uncle Vernon, Aunt Petunia, and Dudley were all hanging, dumbstruck, out of Harry's window.**

**"See you next summer!" Harry yelled.**

**The Weasleys and Alex roared with laughter and Harry settled back in his seat, grinning from ear to ear. **

"**So Alex," Harry said. "This is Ron, Fred, and George Weasley." **

"**Nice to meet you," Alex said, slightly out of breath and still in wonder at what just transpired. **

"**Good to meet the other person Ginny won't stop talking about," Fred grinned, leaving only Harry to wonder who else Ginny never stopped talking about. **

Alex, Hermione, the twins, and Ron snickered. Ginny flushed bright red and Harry got slightly hot in the face.

**"Let Hedwig out," Harry told Ron. "She can fly behind us. She hasn't had a chance to stretch her wings for ages."**

**George handed the hairpin to Ron and, a moment later, Hedwig soared joyfully out of the window to glide alongside them like a ghost.**

"You know how to do it too?" Molly asked.

"Mum, haven't you noticed? Each sibling passes it down to the next youngest a year before they start Hogwarts," Bill said.

"Then Ron taught me," Harry shrugged.

"Ginny taught me too," Alex agreed.

"Hermione?" Molly asked, sounding hopeful.

Hermione's cheeks turned slightly pink, "I already knew."

Minerva raised an eyebrow at her, "How did you learn?"

"My uncle's a locksmith," Hermione defended, but was met with blank stares from most. "He unlocks lock that muggles accidently loose the keys to."

"Fascinating," Arthur grinned.

**"So - what's the story, Harry?" said Ron impatiently. "What's been happening?"**

**Harry told them all about Dobby, the warning he'd given them and the fiasco of the violet pudding, with help from Alex. There was a long, shocked silence when he had finished.**

**"Very fishy," said Fred finally.**

**"Definitely dodgy" agreed George. "So he wouldn't even tell you who's supposed to be plotting all this stuff?"**

**"I don't think he could," said Harry. "I told you, every time he got close to letting something slip, he started banging his head against the wall."**

**He saw Fred and George look at each other.**

**"What, you think he was lying to us?" said Alex.**

"It doesn't seem like it," Remus commented.

**"Well," said Fred, "put it this way - house-elves have got powerful magic of their own, but they can't usually use it without their master's permission. I reckon old Dobby was sent to stop you coming back to Hogwarts. Someone's idea of a joke. Can you think of anyone at school with a grudge against you?"**

**"Yes," said Harry and Ron together, instantly. **

"**Who?" Alex asked. **

"You didn't tell me about him," Alex huffed. "You didn't tell me anything negative about your first year. Until now I thought you actually had a peaceful year at Hogwarts."

**"Draco Malfoy," Harry explained. "He hates me."**

**"Draco Malfoy?" said George, turning around. "Not Lucius Malfoy's son?" **

Arthur's face darkened, "Unfortunately."

**"Must be, it's not a very common name, is it?" said Harry.**

**"I've heard Dad talking about him," said George. "He was a big supporter of You-Know-Who."**

**"And when You-Know-Who disappeared," said Fred, craning around to look at the Potters, "Lucius Malfoy came back saying he'd never meant any of it. Load of dung - Dad reckons he was right in You-Know-Who's inner circle."**

"He was," Sirius confirmed darkly.

**Harry had heard these rumors about the Malfoy family before and it didn't surprise him at all. Malfoy made Dudley Dursley look like a kind, thoughtful, and sensitive boy.**

Ron snorted, "I wouldn't go that far."

**"I don't know whether the Malfoy's own a house-elf," said Harry.**

**"Well, whoever owns him will be an old wizarding family, and they'll be rich," said Fred.** **"Yeah, Mum's always wishing we had a house-elf to do the ironing," said George. "But all we've got is a lousy old ghoul in the attic and gnomes all over the garden. House-elves come with big old manors and castles and places like that; you wouldn't catch one in our house."**

**Harry was silent. Judging by the fact that Draco Malfoy usually had the best of everything, his family was rolling in wizard gold; he could just see Malfoy strutting around a large manor house. Sending the family servant to stop Harry from going back to Hogwarts also sounded exactly like the sort of thing Malfoy would do. **

**Had Harry been stupid to take Dobby seriously?**

**"I'm glad we came to get you, anyway," said Ron. "I was getting really worried when you didn't answer any of my letters. Ginny was panicking too, Alex. We thought it was Errol's fault at first -"**

"I wouldn't say panicking…" Ginny said.

"We would," the twins said.

**"Who's Errol?"**

**"Our owl. He's ancient. It wouldn't be the first time he'd collapsed on a delivery. So then I tried to borrow Hermes -"**

**"Who?"**

**"The owl Mum and Dad bought Percy when he was made prefect," said Fred from the front.**

**"But Percy wouldn't lend him to me," said Ron. "Said he needed him."**

"I did," Percy said, his cheeks red.

The twins, Ron, and Ginny snickered at their older brother, leaving those who didn't know to look at them suspiciously.

**"Percy's been acting very oddly this summer," said George, frowning. "And he has been sending a lot of letters and spending a load of time shut up in his room... I mean, there's only so many times you can polish a prefect badge... **

Percy turned even redder and for his sake, many tried not to laugh.

**You're driving too far west, Fred," he added, pointing at a compass on the dashboard. Fred twiddled the steering wheel.**

**"So, does your dad know you've got the car?" said Alex, but Harry guessed the answer.**

**"Er, no," said Ron, "he had to work tonight. Hopefully we'll be able to get it back in the garage without Mum noticing we flew it."**

"That was not going to happen," Mrs. Weasley said flatly, and the other Weasleys nodded.

"I said 'hopefully'."

**"What does your dad do at the Ministry of Magic, anyway?"**

**"He works in the most boring department," said Ron. "The Misuse of Muggle Artefacts Office."**

**"The what?" **

**"It's all to do with bewitching things that are Muggle-made, you know, in case they end up back in a Muggle shop or house. Like, last year, some old witch died and her tea set was sold to an antiques shop. This Muggle woman bought it, took it home, and tried to serve her friends tea in it. It was a nightmare - Dad was working overtime for weeks."**

**"What happened?" Alex asked curiously.**

**"The teapot went berserk and squirted boiling tea all over the place and one man ended up in the hospital with the sugar tongs clamped to his nose. ** **Dad was going frantic - it's only him and an old warlock called Perkins in the office -and they had to do Memory Charms and all sorts of stuff to cover it up -"**

**"But your dad - this car -"**

**Fred laughed. "Yeah, Dad's crazy about everything to do with Muggles; our shed's full of Muggle stuff. He takes it apart, puts spells on it, and puts it back together again. If he raided our house he'd have to put himself under arrest. **

George pictured it mentally and bursted out laughing, imagining his father trying to fight himself from catching himself. Many people looked at him strange.

**It drives Mum mad."**

**"That's the main road," said George, peering down through the windshield. "We'll be there in ten minutes ... Just as well, it's getting light . . . ."**

**A faint pinkish glow was visible along the horizon to the east.**

**Fred brought the car lower, and Harry saw a dark patchwork of fields and clumps of trees.**

**"We're a little way outside the village," said George. "Ottery St. Catchpole."**

**Lower and lower went the flying car. The edge of a brilliant red sun was now gleaming through the trees.**

"You descried things so nicely Harry," Hermione grinned.

"Like when he said you hissed like an angry goose?" Ron asked.

"Shut it Ron!" She said, slapping his shoulder. "I do recall you being called a radish with a bad sunburn."

**"Touchdown!" said Fred as, with a slight bump, they hit the ground.**

**They had landed next to a tumbledown garage in a small yard, and Harry looked out for the first time at Ron's house.**

**It looked as though it had once been a large stone pigpen, but extra rooms had been added here and there until it was several stories high and so crooked it looked as though it were held up by magic **

Arthur nodded.

**(which, Harry reminded himself, it probably was). Four or five chimneys were perched on top of the red roof. A lopsided sign stuck in the ground near the entrance read, THE BURROW. Around the front door lay a jumble of rubber boots and a very rusty cauldron. Several fat brown chickens were pecking their way around the yard.**

**"It's not much," said Ron.**

**"It's wonderful," said Harry happily, thinking of Privet Drive. **

"**Amazing," Alex agreed, slack-jawed.**

**They got out of the car.**

**"Now, we'll go upstairs really quietly," said Fred, "and wait for Mum to call us for breakfast Then, Ron, you come bounding downstairs going, `Mum, Ginny, look who turned up in the night!' and they'll both be all pleased to see Harry and Alex and no one need ever know we flew the car."**

"Did you honestly think that was going to work?" Charlie laughed.

"No," Both twins chorused.

**"Right," said Ron. "Come on, Harry, Alex you can stay with us until Ginny gets up, I sleep at the - at the top…" Ron had gone a nasty greenish colour, his eyes fixed on the house. **

"Mum's found you out!" Bill laughed. "This ought to be good."

**The other four wheeled around. Mrs. Weasley was marching across the yard, scattering chickens, and for a short, plump, kind-faced woman, it was remarkable how much she looked like a sabre-toothed tiger.**

The Weasleys nodded and she looked quite proud of herself.

**"Ah," said Fred.**

**"Oh, dear," said George.**

**Mrs. Weasley came to a halt in front of them, her hands on her hips, staring from one guilty face to the next. She was wearing a flowered apron with a wand sticking out of the pocket.**

**"So," she said.**

**"Morning, Mum," said George, in what he clearly thought was a jaunty, winning voice.**

**"Have you any idea how worried I've been?" said Mrs. Weasley in a deadly whisper.**

"Guilt trip," Remus said. "I know that one."

**"Sorry, Mum, but see, we had to -"**

**All three of Mrs. Weasley's sons were taller than she was, but they cowered as her rage broke over them.**

**"**_**Beds empty! No note! Car gone**_ … **could have crashed … out of my mind with worry …did you care? …never, as long as I've lived…you wait until your father gets home, we never had trouble like this from Bill or Charlie or Percy …"**

**"Perfect Percy," muttered Fred.**

**"YOU COULD DO WITH TAKING A LEAF OUT OF PERCY'S BOOK!" yelled Mrs. Weasley, prodding a finger in Fred's chest. "You could have died, you could have been seen, you could have lost your father his job -"**

**It seemed to go on for hours. Mrs. Weasley had shouted herself hoarse before she turned on Harry and Alex, who backed away. **

"Sorry, loves, didn't mean to scare you," Molly said sheepishly.

**"I'm very pleased to see you, Harry, dear. Oh! And you must be Alex, it's nice to meet you," she said. "Come in and have some breakfast."**

**She turned and walked back into the house and Alex looked at Harry, who looked at Ron, who nodded encouragingly.**

**The kitchen was small and rather cramped. There was a scrubbed wooden table and chairs in the middle, and Harry sat down on the edge of his seat, looking around. He had never been in a wizard house before.**

"At least that I could remember," Harry whispered. It was terribly unfair; he could remember the final moments in his parents' life, but not what their house even looked like.

**The clock on the wall opposite him had only one hand and no numbers at all. Written around the edge were things like Time to make tea, Time to feed the chickens, and You're late. Books were stacked three deep on the mantelpiece, books with titles like Charm Your Own Cheese, Enchantment in Baking, and One Minute Feasts - It's Magic! And unless Harry's ears were deceiving him, the old radio next to the sink had just announced that coming up was "Witching Hour, with the popular singing sorceress, Celestina Warbeck."**

Alex grinned while Harry groaned.

**Mrs. Weasley was clattering around, cooking breakfast a little haphazardly, throwing dirty looks at her sons as she threw sausages into the frying pan. Every now and then she muttered things like "don't know what you were thinking of," and "never would have believed it."**

**"I don't blame you, dears," she assured Harry and Alex, tipping eight or nine sausages onto his plate. **

Sirius nodded and Remus couldn't help but agree also.

**"Arthur and I have been worried about you, too. Just last night we were saying we'd come and get you ourselves if you hadn't written back to Ron by Friday. But really," (she was now adding three fried eggs to his plate) "flying an illegal car halfway across the country - anyone could have seen you -"**

**She flicked her wand casually at the dishes in the sink, which began to clean themselves, clinking gently in the background.**

"I couldn't stop staring," Alex grinned.

Ron snorted, "We noticed."

**"It was cloudy, Mum!" said Fred.**

**"You keep your mouth closed while you're eating!" Mrs. Weasley snapped.**

**"They were starving them, Mum!" said George.**

**"And you!" said Mrs. Weasley, but it was with a slightly softened expression that she started cutting Alex's bread and buttering it for her.**

"I know I know," Molly said. "I'm so sorry, boys, Harry, Alex."

"It's okay Mum," Fred said, the others nodding.

**At that moment there was a diversion in the form of a small, redheaded figure in a long nightdress, who appeared in the kitchen, gave a small squeal, and gasped, "Alex?**"

"**Ginny!" Alex replied, jumping from her chair and they met in a tight hug. **

Ginny and Alex grinned at each other, hugging again.

**They let go and Ginny's eyes made their way to Harry. She squealed again, going scarlet and turned around, racing up the stairs. **

Ginny once again went red in the face, groaning. This was going to be a long book for her.

"**Thank you for breakfast Mrs. Weasley," Alex said, gave a quick grin to her brother and followed the other red-headed girl up the stairs.**

**"Ginny," said Ron in an undertone to Harry. "My sister. She's been talking about you and Alex all summer."**

**"Yeah, she'll be wanting your autograph, Harry," Fred said with a grin**

"Fred!"

"Sorry Gin-Gin," Fred replied, with a slight laugh.

**but he caught his mother's eye and bent his face over his plate without another word. Nothing more was said until all four plates were clean, which took a surprisingly short time.**

**"Blimey, I'm tired," yawned Fred, setting down his knife and fork at last. "I think I'll go to bed and -"**

"_That_ wasn't going to happen either," Bill said.

**"You will not," snapped Mrs. Weasley. "It's your own fault you've been up all night. You're going to de-gnome the garden for me; they're getting completely out of hand again -"**

**"Oh, Mum -"**

**"And you two," she said, glaring at Ron and Fred. "You can go up to bed, dear," she added to Harry. "You didn't ask them to fly that wretched car -"**

**But Harry, who felt wide awake, said quickly, "I'll help Ron. I've never seen a de-gnoming -"**

**"That's very sweet of you, dear, but it's dull work," said Mrs. Weasley. "Now, let's see what Lockhart's got to say on the subject -"**

"Gah!" Ron yelled. Harry groaned, and Hermione went slightly pink in the face.

"Lockhart," Sirius said slowly. "Wait. _Gilderoy_ Lockhart?"

"You know him?" Alex asked.

"Couple years below us," Remus said. "Hufflepuff."

"He was a total idiot," Sirius. "Why would you ask him anything?"

Molly's face turned red and Remus said, "Sirius, he's written quite a few books."

"Books?" Sirius gasped. "I didn't think he knew how to write his own name!"

"Oh, he's quite good at signing his name," Ron said darkly. "Stupid git."

**And she pulled a heavy book from the stack on the mantelpiece.**

**George groaned.** **"Mum, we know how to de-gnome a garden -"**

**Harry looked at the cover of Mrs. Weasley's book. Written across it in fancy gold letters were the words Gilderoy Lockhart's Guide to Household Pests. There was a big photograph on the front of a very good-looking wizard with wavy blond hair and bright blue eyes. As always in the wizarding world, the photograph was moving; the wizard, who Harry supposed was Gilderoy Lockhart, kept winking cheekily up at them all. **

"Sounds like him," Sirius surmised.

**Mrs. Weasley beamed down at him.**

**"Oh, he is marvellous," she said. "He knows his household pests, all right, it's a wonderful book …"**

**"Mum fancies him," said Fred, in a very audible whisper.**

"I do not!" Molly said, grabbing Arthur's hand.

**"Don't be so ridiculous, Fred," said Mrs. Weasley, her cheeks rather pink. "All right, if you think you know better than Lockhart, you can go and get on with it, and woe betide you if there's a single gnome in that garden when I come out to inspect it."**

**Yawning and grumbling, the Weasleys slouched outside with Harry behind them. The garden was large, and in Harry's eyes, exactly what a garden should be. The Dursleys wouldn't have liked it – there were plenty of weeds, and the grass needed cutting but there were gnarled trees all around the walls, plants Harry had never seen spilling from every flower bed, and a big green pond full of frogs.**

"I love the Weasley's garden," Hermione agreed.

**"Muggles have garden gnomes, too, you know," Harry told Ron they crossed the lawn.**

**"Yeah, I've seen those things they think are gnomes," said Ron, bent double with his head in a peony bush, "like fat little Santa Clauses with fishing rods . . . ."**

**There was a violent scuffling noise, the peony bush shuddered, and Ron straightened up. "This is a gnome," he said grimly.**

**"Gerroff me! Gerroff me!" squealed the gnome.**

**It was certainly nothing like Santa Claus. It was small and leathery looking, with a large, knobby, bald head exactly like a potato. **

A few people laughed.

**Ron held it at arm's length as it kicked out at him with its horny little feet; he grasped it around the ankles and turned it upside down.**

**"This is what you have to do," he said. He raised the gnome above his head ("Gerroff me!") and started to swing it in great circles like a lasso. Seeing the shocked look on Harry's face, Ron added, "It doesn't hurt them - you've just got to make them really dizzy so they can't find their way back to the gnome holes."**

**He let go of the gnome's ankles: It flew twenty feet into the air and landed with a thud in the field over the hedge.**

**"Pitiful," said Fred. "I bet I can get mine beyond that stump."**

"The only fun part about de-gnoming is the competition," Charlie grinned.

**Harry learned quickly not to feel too sorry for the gnomes. He decided just to drop the first one he caught over the hedge, but the gnome, sensing weakness, sank its razor-sharp teeth into Harry's finger and he had a hard job shaking it off – until…**

**"Wow, Harry - that must've been fifty feet…"**

"Good arm," Arthur smiled.

"I was just trying to get the bloody thing to let go."

**The air was soon thick with flying gnomes.**

**"See, they're not too bright," said George, seizing five or six gnomes at once. "The moment they know the de-gnoming's going on they storm up to have a look. You'd think they'd have learned by now just to stay put."**

**Soon, the crowd of gnomes in the field started walking away in a straggling line, their little shoulders hunched.**

**"They'll be back," said Ron as they watched the gnomes disappear into the hedge on the other side of the field. "They love it here… Dad's too soft with them; he thinks they're funny."**

"Arthur!"

"Oh, Molly they're hilarious!"

**Just then, the front door slammed.**

**"He's back!" said George. "Dad's home!"**

**They hurried through the garden and back into the house.**

**Mr. Weasley was slumped in a kitchen chair with his glasses off and his eyes closed. He was a thin man, going bald, but the little hair he had was as red as any of his children's. He was wearing long green robes, which were dusty and travel-worn.**

**"What a night," he mumbled, groping for the teapot as they all sat down around him. "Nine raids. Nine! And old Mundungus Fletcher tried to put a hex on me when I had my back turned…"**

**Mr. Weasley took a long gulp of tea and sighed.**

**"Find anything, Dad?" said Fred eagerly.**

**"All I got were a few shrinking door keys and a biting kettle," yawned Mr. Weasley. "There was some pretty nasty stuff that wasn't my department, though. Mortlake was taken away for questioning about some extremely odd ferrets, but that's the Committee on Experimental Charms, thank goodness …"**

**"Why would anyone bother making door keys shrink?" said George.**

**"Just Muggle-baiting," sighed Mr. Weasley. "Sell them a key that keeps shrinking to nothing so they can never find it when they need it ... Of course, it's very hard to convict anyone because no Muggle would admit their key keeps shrinking - they'll insist they just keep losing it. Bless them, they'll go to any lengths to ignore magic, even if it's staring them in the face ... But the things our lot have taken to enchanting, you wouldn't believe -"**

"That's terrible," Hermione sniffed.

**"LIKE CARS, FOR INSTANCE?"**

**Mrs. Weasley had appeared, holding a long poker like a sword. Mr. Weasley's eyes jerked open. He stared guiltily at his wife.**

Arthur looked down sheepishly.

**"C-cars, Molly, dear?"**

**"Yes, Arthur, cars," said Mrs. Weasley, her eyes flashing. "Imagine a wizard buying a rusty old car and telling his wife all he wanted to do with it was take it apart to see how it worked, while really he was enchanting it to make it fly."**

**Mr. Weasley blinked.** **"Well, dear, I think you'll find that he would be quite within the law to do that, even if - er - he maybe would have done better to, um, tell his wife the truth ... There's a loophole in the law, you'll find ... As long as he wasn't intending to fly the car, the fact that the car could fly wouldn't -"**

"You wrote that law didn't you?" Sirius asked, letting out a bark-like laugh when Arthur nodded.

**"Arthur Weasley, you made sure there was a loophole when you wrote that law!" shouted Mrs. Weasley. "Just so you could carry on tinkering with all that Muggle rubbish in your shed! And for your information, Harry and Alex arrived this morning in the car you weren't intending to fly!"**

**"Harry? Alex?" said Mr. Weasley blankly. "Harry and Alex who?"**

**He looked around, saw Harry, and jumped. **

"Sorry Mr. Weasley."

**"Good lord, is it Harry Potter? Very pleased to meet you, Ron's told us so much about -"**

**"Your sons flew that car to Harry's house and back last night." shouted Mrs. Weasley. "What have you got to say about that, eh?"**

**"Did you really?" said Mr. Weasley eagerly. "Did it go all right? **

A few people started laughing and Mrs. Weasley let out an exasperated sigh.

**I – I mean," he faltered as sparks flew from Mrs. Weasley's wand, "that - that was very wrong, boys - very wrong indeed ..." **

"Valiant effort Arthur," Dumbledore said with mirth.

**"Let's leave them to it," Ron muttered to Harry as Mrs. Weasley swelled like a bullfrog. "Come on, I'll show you my bedroom."**

**They slipped out of the kitchen and down a narrow passageway to an uneven staircase, which wound its way, zigzagging up through the house. On the third landing, a door stood ajar. Harry just caught sight of a pair of bright brown eyes staring at him before it closed with a snap and giggles erupted from inside.**

"I was laughing at Ginny's ridiculousness," Alex giggled again.

**"Ginny," said Ron. "You don't know how weird it is for her to be this shy. She never shuts up normally -"**

"Ron!"

"What? You're talkative."

**They climbed two more flights until they reached a door with peeling paint and a small plaque on it, saying RONALD'S ROOM.**

**Harry stepped in, his head almost touching the sloping ceiling, and blinked. It was like walking into a furnace: **

"Was it hot?" Remus asked, confused.

Harry snorted, "No. You'll see."

**Nearly everything in Ron's room seemed to be a violent shade of orange: the bedspread, the walls, even the ceiling. Then Harry realized that Ron had covered nearly every inch of the shabby wallpaper with posters of the same seven witches and wizards, all wearing bright orange robes, carrying broomsticks, and waving energetically.**

"Chudley Cannons." Charlie and Bill groaned.

**"Your Quidditch team?" said Harry.**

**"The Chudley Cannons," said Ron, pointing at the orange bedspread, which was emblazoned with two giant black C's and a speeding cannonball. "Ninth in the league." **

"Out of ten," Sirius said dryly, earning a glare from Ron.

**Ron's school spell books were stacked untidily in a corner, next to a pile of comics that all seemed to feature The Adventures of Martin Miggs, the Mad Muggle. **

Hermione looked at Ron oddly.

**Ron's magic wand was lying on top of a fish tank full of frogspawn on the windowsill, next to his fat gray rat, Scabbers, who was snoozing in a patch of sun.**

**Harry stepped over a pack of Self-Shuffling playing cards on the floor and looked out of the tiny window. In the field far below he could see a gang of gnomes sneaking one by one back through the Weasleys' hedge. Then he turned to look at Ron, who was watching him almost nervously, as though waiting for his opinion.**

**"It's a bit small," said Ron quickly. "Not like that room you had with the Muggles. And I'm right underneath the ghoul in the attic; he's always banging on the pipes and groaning ..."**

**But Harry, grinning widely, said, "This is the best house I've ever been in."**

"Still is," Harry grinned.

"I agree," Alex added, and Hermione nodded.

**Ron's ears went pink. **

Percy stood from his end of the couch and walked the book over to Professor McGonagall.

"**At Flourish and Blotts**."

Okay, so I finished it! I might be able to upload another chapter tonight, *hint* *hint* so check back in after a few hours.

Couch 1 [Remus, Sirius, Harry, Alex, Ginny, Ron, Hermione]

Couch 2 across form couch one [Arthur, Molly, Bill, Charlie, Percy]

Armchairs 1 and 2 [Dumbledore] [McGonagall]

Loveseat [Fred, George]


	4. Chapter 4

Okay, so I know I said I would try to get another chapter that night but I couldn't sorry! Then, just for the record, I had this chapter done on the 10th, but my internet went out! I don't know why, but it JUST turned back on now, okay? Anyway, after being gone so long and many people were asking me to continue I got, 4 reviews. For real? Four? Couldn't you guys let me know if you really wanted me to continue? Let me know because if no one is reading, why am I writing?

Don't own. JK Rowling does.

"**At Flourish and Blotts**,"

**Life at the Burrow was as different as possible from life on Privet Drive. **

All the Weasleys grimaced.

"It better well be," Ron grumbled.

**The Dursleys liked everything neat and ordered; the Weasleys' house burst with the strange and unexpected. **

"It shouldn't be any other way!" Fred burst forth.

**Harry got a shock the first time he looked in the mirror over the kitchen mantelpiece and it shouted, "Tuck your shirt in, scruffy!" The ghoul in the attic howled and dropped pipes whenever he felt things were getting too quiet, and small explosions from Fred and George's bedroom were considered perfectly normal. **

The twins grinned evilly and everyone eyed them worriedly.

**What Harry found most unusual about life at Ron's, however, wasn't the talking mirror or the clanking ghoul: It was the fact that everybody there seemed to like him and his sister, besides each other.**

"Of course we do!" Molly said, sounding shocked and appalled.

"We know Mrs. Weasley," Alex smiled at her.

**Mrs. Weasley fussed over the state of his socks and tried to force him to eat fourth helpings at every meal. **

"Merlin knows you could use it," Sirius muttered and Harry poked him roughly in the ribs.

**Mr. Weasley liked Alex to sit next to him at the dinner table so that he could bombard her with questions about life with Muggles, asking her to explain how things like plugs and the postal service worked.**

Arthur's eyes lit up, but he refrained from saying anything.

"**Fascinating," he would say as Alex talked him through using a telephone. "Ingenious, really, how many ways Muggles have found of getting along without magic."**

**Harry heard from Hogwarts one sunny morning about a week after he had arrived at the Burrow. He and Ron went down to breakfast to find Mr. and Mrs. Weasley, Alex and Ginny already sitting at the kitchen table. The moment she saw Harry, Ginny accidentally knocked her porridge bowl to the floor with a loud clatter. **

Alex elbowed her friend with a snort, to which Ginny retaliated with a swat on the arm.

**Ginny seemed very prone to knocking things over whenever Harry entered a room. She dived under the table to retrieve the bowl and emerged with her face glowing like the setting sun. Pretending he hadn't noticed this, Harry sat down and took the toast Mrs. Weasley offered him.**

Ginny's face was again glowing red, but she muttered a quiet "Thanks" to Harry.

"**Letters from school," said Mr. Weasley, passing Harry and Ron identical envelopes of yellowish parchment, addressed in green ink. "Dumbledore already knows you're here— doesn't miss a trick, that man. You two've got them, too," he added, as Fred and George ambled in, still in their pajamas.**

**Harry didn't miss the way his sister's eyes lit up and could see her quite obviously refraining from shrieking in joy. **

"Here I was thinking I could actually manage to slip something past you," Alex grumbled.

"Unfortunately not going to happen," Ron said.

**For a few minutes there was silence as they all read their letters. Harry's told him to catch the Hogwarts Express as usual from King's Cross station on September first. There was also a list of the new books he'd need for the coming year.**

**SECOND-YEAR STUDENTS WILL REQUIRE:**

**The Standard Book of Spells, Grade 2by Miranda Goshawk**

**Break with a Banshee by Gilderoy Lockhart**

"I can't actually believe he wrote a book," Sirius shook his head.

**Gadding with Ghouls by Gilderoy Lockhart**

**Holidays with Hags by Gilderoy Lockhart**

**Travels with Trolls by Gilderoy Lockhart**

**Voyages with Vampires by Gilderoy Lockhart**

**Wanderings with Werewolves by Gilderoy Lockhart**

**Year with the Yeti by Gilderoy Lockhart**

Sirius blinked, "Scratch that, a lot of books. Why did you have to have all of them?"

"Our DADA teacher was quite infatuated with Lockhart," Hermione said, evoking snickers from those at Hogwarts that year.

**Fred, who had finished his own list, peered over at Harry's.**

"**You've been told to get all Lockhart's books, too!" he said. "The new Defense Against the Dark Arts teacher must be a fan — bet it's a witch."**

"I wish," Ron muttered darkly.

**At this point, Fred caught his mother's eye and quickly busied himself with the marmalade.**

"**That lot won't come cheap," said George, with a quick look at his parents. "Lockhart's books are really expensive…"**

"**Well, we'll manage," said Mrs. Weasley, but she looked worried. "I expect we'll be able to pick up a lot of Ginny's things secondhand."**

**Just then Ron's elder brother Percy walked in. He was already dressed, his Hogwarts prefect badge pinned to his sweater vest.**

"**Morning, all," said Percy briskly. "Lovely day."**

**He sat down in the only remaining chair but leapt up again almost immediately, pulling from underneath him a molting, gray feather duster — at least, that was what Harry thought it was, until he saw that it was breathing.**

"You sat on him?" Hermione asked, aghast.

"It wasn't on purpose!" Percy cried, trying to defend himself.

"**Errol!" said Ron, taking the limp owl from Percy and extracting a letter from under its wing. "Finally— he's got Hermione's answer. I wrote to her saying we were going to try and rescue you from the Dursleys."**

**He carried Errol to a perch just inside the back door and tried to stand him on it, but Errol flopped straight off again so Ron lay him on the draining board instead, muttering, "Pathetic." Then he ripped open Hermione's letter and read it out loud:**

"**Dear Ron, and Harry if you're there, **

"What, not me?" Alex asked, with a fake pout.

Hermione laughed, "I hadn't even met you yet!"

"**I hope everything went all right and that Harry is okay and that you didn't do anything illegal to get him out, Ron, because that would get Harry into trouble, too. I've been really worried and if Harry is all right, will you please let me know at once, but perhaps it would be better if you used a different owl because I think another delivery might finish your one off.**

"**I'm very busy with schoolwork, of course'— How can she be?" said Ron in horror. "We're on holiday! **

"You do have assignments over the holidays, Mr. Wesley," McGonagall raised an eyebrow at him and he grinned sheepishly.

—'**and we're going to London next Wednesday to buy my new books. Why don't we meet in Diagon Alley? Let me know what's happening as soon as you can. **

**Love from Hermione."**

"**Well, that fits in nicely, we can go and get all your things then, too," said Mrs. Weasley, starting to clear the table. "What're you all up to today?"**

**Harry, Ron, Fred, and George were planning to go up the hill to a small paddock the Weasleys owned. It was surrounded by trees that blocked it from view of the village below, meaning that they could practice Quidditch there, as long as they didn't fly too high.**

"It was safer to wait for Hogwarts for me," Alex said with a slight shiver.

**They couldn't use real Quidditch balls, which would have been hard to explain if they had escaped and flown away over the village; instead they threw apples for one another to catch. They took turns riding Harry's Nimbus Two Thousand, which was easily the best broom; Ron's old Shooting Star was often outstripped by passing butterflies.**

**Five minutes later they were marching up the hill, broomsticks over their shoulders. They had asked Percy if he wanted to join them, but he had said he was busy. **

The twins grinned, but for once, didn't comment.

**Harry had only seen Percy at mealtimes so far; he stayed shut in his room the rest of the time.**

"**Wish I knew what he was up to," said Fred, frowning. "He's not himself. His exam results came the day before you did; twelve O.W.L.s and he hardly gloated at all."**

"**Ordinary Wizarding Levels," George explained, seeing Harry's puzzled look. "Bill got twelve, too. If we're not careful, we'll have another Head Boy in the family. I don't think I could stand the shame."**

Molly and Minerva both glared at the twins and they pretended not to notice, while Percy and Bill looked slightly offended.

**Bill was the oldest Weasley brother. He and the next brother, Charlie, had already left Hogwarts. Harry had never met either of them, but knew that Charlie was in Romania studying dragons and Bill in Egypt working for the wizard's bank, Gringotts.**

"**Dunno how Mum and Dad are going to afford all our school stuff this year," said George after a while. "Five sets of Lockhart books! And Ginny needs robes and a wand and everything…"**

**Harry said nothing. He felt a bit awkward. Stored in an underground vault at Gringotts in London was a small fortune that his parents had left him and Alex. Of course, it was only in the wizarding world that they had money; you couldn't use Galleons, Sickles, and Knuts in Muggle shops. **

**He had never mentioned his Gringotts bank account to the Dursleys; he didn't think their horror of anything connected with magic would stretch to a large pile of gold.**

**Mrs. Weasley woke them all early the following Wednesday. After a quick half a dozen bacon sandwiches each, they pulled on their coats and Mrs. Weasley took a flowerpot off the kitchen mantelpiece and peered inside.**

"**We're running low, Arthur," she sighed. "We'll have to buy some more today… Ah well, guests first! After you, Harry dear!"**

**And she offered him the flowerpot.**

**Harry stared at them all watching him and only Alex looked confused. **

"You wouldn't have known how to use it, would you?" Bill asked amused.

"**W-what am I supposed to do?" he stammered.**

"**He's never traveled by Floo powder," said Ron suddenly. "Sorry, Harry, I forgot."**

"**Never?" said Mr. Weasley. "But how did you get to Diagon Alley to buy your school things last year?"**

"**I went on the Underground —"**

"**Really?" said Mr. Weasley eagerly. "Were there escapators? How exactly —"**

A few people chuckled.

"**Not now, Arthur," said Mrs. Weasley. "Floo powder's a lot quicker, dear, but goodness me, if you've never used it before —"**

"**He'll be all right, Mum," said Fred. "Harry, Alex, watch us first."**

**He took a pinch of glittering powder out of the flowerpot, stepped up to the fire, and threw the powder into the flames.**

**With a roar, the fire turned emerald green and rose higher than Fred, who stepped right into it, shouted, "Diagon Alley!" and vanished.**

"That was kind of freaky to watch the first time," Alex said.

"**You must speak clearly, dear," Mrs. Weasley told the Potters as George dipped his hand into the flowerpot. "And be sure to get out at the right grate…"**

"**The right what?" said Alex nervously as the fire roared and whipped George out of sight, too.**

"**Well, there are an awful lot of wizard fires to choose from, you know, but as long as you've spoken clearly-"**

"**He'll be fine, Molly, don't fuss," said Mr. Weasley, helping himself to Floo powder too.**

"**But, dear, if one of them got lost, how would we ever explain to their aunt and uncle?"**

"They wouldn't care," Alex said with a shrug.

"**They wouldn't mind," Harry reassured her. "Dudley would think it was a brilliant joke if we got lost up a chimney, don't worry about that —"**

"**Well… all right… Harry, you go after Arthur," said Mrs. Weasley. "Now, when you get into the fire, say where you're going."**

"That's rather important," Harry mumbled and his sister and Ron snickered at him.

"**And keep your elbows tucked in," Ron advised.**

"**And your eyes shut," said Mrs. Weasley. "The soot —"**

"**Don't fidget," said Ron. "Or you might well fall out of the wrong fireplace —"**

"**But don't panic and get out too early; wait until you see Fred and George." **

"**Be careful Harry," Alex said.**

**Trying hard to bear all this in mind, Harry took a pinch of Floo powder and walked to the edge of the fire. He took a deep breath, scattered the powder into the flames, and stepped forward; the fire felt like a warm breeze; he opened his mouth and immediately swallowed a lot of hot ash.**

"**D-Dia-gon Alley," he coughed.**

"Uh, oh," Sirius said. "Where did you end up?"

Harry grimaced, "You'll see."

**It felt as though he was being sucked down a giant drain. He seemed to be spinning very fast — the roaring in his ears was deafening — he tried to keep his eyes open but the whirl of green flames made him feel sick —something hard knocked his elbow and he tucked it in tightly, still spinning and spinning — now it felt as though cold hands were slapping his face — squinting through his glasses he saw a blurred stream of fireplaces and snatched glimpses of the rooms beyond — his bacon sandwiches were churning inside him — he closed his eyes again wishing it would stop, and then…**

"Terribly unpleasant," Alex nodded.

**He fell, face forward, onto cold stone and felt the bridge of his glasses snap.**

**Dizzy and bruised, covered in soot, he got gingerly to his feet, holding his broken glasses up to his eyes. He was quite alone, but where he was, he had no idea. All he could tell was that he was standing in the stone fireplace of what looked like a large, dimly lit wizard's shop — but nothing in here was ever likely to be on a Hogwarts school list.**

**A glass case nearby held a withered hand on a cushion, a bloodstained pack of cards, and a staring glass eye. Evil-looking masks stared down from the walls, an assortment of human bones lay upon the counter, and rusty, spiked instruments hung from the ceiling. Even worse, the dark, narrow street Harry could see through the dusty shop window was definitely not Diagon Alley.**

"Of course you couldn't end up somewhere pleasant," Sirius rolled his eyes.

"If I had my way I would have ended up in Diagon Alley," Harry protested.

**The sooner he got out of here, the better. Nose still stinging where it had hit the hearth, Harry made his way swiftly and silently toward the door, but before he'd got halfway toward it, two people appeared on the other side of the glass — and one of them was the very last person Harry wanted to meet when he was lost, covered in soot, and wearing broken glasses: Draco Malfoy.**

Alex, the twins, and Ginny groaned.

"Right unlucky there mate," Fred grimaced.

**Harry looked quickly around and spotted a large black cabinet to his left; he shot inside it and pulled the doors closed, leaving a small crack to peer through. **

**Seconds later, a bell clanged, and Malfoy stepped into the shop.**

**The man who followed could only be Draco's father. He had the same pale, pointed face and identical cold, gray eyes. **

**Mr. Malfoy crossed the shop, looking lazily at the items on display, and rang a bell on the counter before turning to his son and saying, "Touch nothing, Draco."**

**Malfoy, who had reached for the glass eye, said, "I thought you were going to buy me a present."**

"**I said I would buy you a racing broom," said his father, drumming his fingers on the counter.**

"**What's the good of that if I'm not on the House team?" said Malfoy, looking sulky and bad-tempered. "Harry Potter got a Nimbus Two Thousand last year. Special permission from Dumbledore so he could play for Gryffindor. He's not even that good, it's just because he's famous… famous for having a stupid scar on his forehead…"**

"I actually think it's because he's an amazing seeker," Charlie said.

**Malfoy bent down to examine a shelf full of skulls.** "… **everyone thinks he's so smart, wonderful Potter with his scar and his broomstick —"**

"**You have told me this at least a dozen times already," said Mr. Malfoy, with a quelling look at his son. "And I would remind you that it is not — prudent — to appear less than fond of Harry Potter, not when most of our kind regard him as the hero who made the Dark Lord disappear — ah, Mr. Borgin." **

Sirius sputtered, "As in Borgin and Burkes?"

Harry nodded and Sirius looked grim, "You better get out of there."

**A stooping man had appeared behind the counter, smoothing his greasy hair back from his face.**

"**Mr. Malfoy, what a pleasure to see you again," said Mr. Borgin in a voice as oily as his hair. "Delighted — and young Master Malfoy, too — charmed. How may I be of assistance? I must show you, just in today, and very reasonably priced —"**

"**I'm not buying today, Mr. Borgin, but selling," said Mr. Malfoy.**

"**Selling?" The smile faded slightly from Mr. Borgin's face.**

"**You have heard, of course, that the Ministry is conducting more raids," said Mr. Malfoy, taking a roll of parchment from his inside pocket and unraveling it for Mr. Borgin to read. "I have a few — ah — items at home that might embarrass me, if the Ministry were to call…"**

**Mr. Borgin fixed a pair of pince-nez to his nose and looked down the list.**

"**The Ministry wouldn't presume to trouble you, sir, surely?"**

**Mr. Malfoy's lip curled.**

"I would and did," Arthur said with a glint in his eye.

"**I have not been visited yet. The name Malfoy still commands a certain respect, yet the Ministry grows ever more meddlesome. There are rumors about a new Muggle Protection Act — no doubt that flea-bitten, Muggle-loving fool Arthur Weasley is behind it —"**

All the Weasley children, Alex, Harry, and Hermione protested loudly.

**Harry felt a hot surge of anger.**

"— **and as you see, certain of these poisons might make it appear —" **

"That you are trying to poison someone?" Alex asked.

"**I understand, sir, of course," said Mr. Borgin. "Let me see…"**

"**Can I have that?" interrupted Draco, pointing at the withered hand on its cushion.**

"**Ah, the Hand of Glory!" said Mr. Borgin, abandoning Mr. Malfoy's list and scurrying over to Draco. "Insert a candle and it gives light only to the holder! Best friend of thieves and plunderers! Your son has fine taste, sir."**

"**I hope my son will amount to more than a thief or a plunderer, Borgin," said Mr. Malfoy coldly, and Mr. Borgin said quickly, "No offense, sir, no offense meant —"**

"**Though if his grades don't pick up," said Mr. Malfoy, more coldly still, "that may indeed be all he is fit for —"**

"**It's not my fault," retorted Draco. "The teachers all have favorites, that Hermione Granger —"**

"Is an exceptional student who actually tries Mr. Malfoy!" McGonagall said shrilly.

Hermione blushed and Harry and Ron grinned at her.

"**I would have thought you'd be ashamed that a girl of no wizard family beat you in every exam," snapped Mr. Malfoy.**

"**Ha!" said Harry under his breath, pleased to see Draco looking both abashed and angry.**

"**It's the same all over," said Mr. Borgin, in his oily voice. "Wizard blood is counting for less everywhere —"**

"**Not with me," said Mr. Malfoy, his long nostrils flaring.**

"**No, sir, nor with me, sir," said Mr. Borgin, with a deep bow.**

"**In that case, perhaps we can return to my list," said Mr. Malfoy shortly. "I am in something of a hurry, Borgin, I have important business elsewhere today —"**

The Golden Trio looked at each other darkly, but no one noticed.

**They started to haggle. Harry watched nervously as Draco drew nearer and nearer to his hiding place, examining the objects for sale. Draco paused to examine a long coil of hangman's rope and to read, smirking, the card propped on a magnificent necklace of opals, Caution: Do Not Touch. Cursed — Has Claimed the Lives of Nineteen Muggle Owners to Date. **

"**That's disgusting," Hermione deadpanned.**

**Draco turned away and saw the cabinet right in front of him. He walked forward — he stretched out his hand for the handle **

"**Done," said Mr. Malfoy at the counter. "Come, Draco —"**

"Close," Remus muttered.

**Harry wiped his forehead on his sleeve as Draco turned away.**

"**Good day to you, Mr. Borgin. I'll expect you at the manor tomorrow to pick up the goods."**

**The moment the door had closed, Mr. Borgin dropped his oily manner.**

"**Good day yourself, Mister Malfoy, and if the stories are true, you haven't sold me half of what's hidden in your manor…" **

"I will find everything you've got Malfoy," Arthur whispered murderously.

**Muttering darkly, Mr. Borgin disappeared into a back room. Harry waited for a minute in case he came back, then, quietly as he could, slipped out of the cabinet, past the glass cases, and out of the shop door.**

**Clutching his broken glasses to his face, Harry stared around. He had emerged into a dingy alleyway that seemed to be made up entirely of shops devoted to the Dark Arts. The one he'd just left, Borgin and Burkes, looked like the largest, but opposite was a nasty window display of shrunken heads and, two doors down, a large cage was alive with gigantic black spiders. **

Ron shivered violently and Ginny patted his hand comfortingly.

**Two shabby-looking wizards were watching him from the shadow of a doorway, muttering to each other. Feeling jumpy, Harry set off, trying to hold his glasses on straight and hoping against hope he'd be able to find a way out of here.**

**An old wooden street sign hanging over a shop selling poisonous candles told him he was in Knockturn Alley. This didn't help, as Harry had never heard of such a place. He supposed he hadn't spoken clearly enough through his mouthful of ashes back in the Weasleys' fire. Trying to stay calm, he wondered what to do. **

"Obviously not," Alex snorted.

"**Not lost are you, my dear?" said a voice in his ear, making him jump.**

**An aged witch stood in front of him, holding a tray of what looked horribly like whole human fingernails. She leered at him, showing mossy teeth. Harry backed away. **

"Don't talk to anyone Harry," Sirius said sharply.

"**I'm fine, thanks," he said. "I'm just —"**

"**HARRY! What d'yeh think yer doin' down there?"**

"Hagrid," Charlie grinned.

**Harry's heart leapt. So did the witch; a load of fingernails cascaded down over her feet and she cursed as the massive form of Hagrid, the Hogwarts' gamekeeper, came striding toward them, beetle-black eyes flashing over his great bristling beard.**

"**Hagrid!" Harry croaked in relief. "I was lost — Floo powder —"**

**Hagrid seized Harry by the scruff of the neck and pulled him away from the witch, knocking the tray right out of her hands. Her shrieks followed them all the way along the twisting alleyway out into bright sunlight. Harry saw a familiar, snow-white marble building in the distance — Gringotts Bank. Hagrid had steered him right into Diagon Alley.**

"**Yer a mess!" said Hagrid gruffly; brushing soot off Harry so forcefully he nearly knocked him into a barrel of dragon dung outside an apothecary. **

"**Skulkin' around Knockturn Alley, I dunno dodgy place, Harry — don' want no one ter see yeh down there —"**

"**I realized that," said Harry, ducking as Hagrid made to brush him off again. "I told you, I was lost — what were **_**you**_** doing down there, anyway?"**

"**I was lookin' fer a Flesh-Eatin' Slug Repellent," growled Hagrid. "They're ruinin' the school cabbages. Yer not on yer own?"**

"**I'm staying with the Weasleys and Alex but we got separated," Harry explained. "I've got to go and find them…"**

**They set off together down the street.**

"**How come yeh never wrote back ter me?" said Hagrid as Harry jogged alongside him (he had to take three steps to every stride of Hagrid's enormous boots). Harry explained all about Dobby and the Dursleys.**

"**Lousy Muggles," growled Hagrid. "If I'd've known —"**

"**Harry! Harry! Over here!"**

**Harry looked up and saw Hermione Granger standing at the top of the white flight of steps to Gringotts. She ran down to meet them, her bushy brown hair flying behind her.**

"Harry!" Hermione moaned, embarrassed.

"I didn't write this," Harry held up his hands.

"**What happened to your glasses? Hello, Hagrid — oh, it's wonderful to see you two again — are you coming into Gringotts, Harry?"**

"**As soon as I've found the Weasleys and my sister," said Harry.**

"**Yeh won't have long ter wait," Hagrid said with a grin.**

**Harry and Hermione looked around. Sprinting up the crowded street were Ron, Fred, George, Percy, and Mr. Weasley.**

"Thought we lost you mate," Ron grinned.

"**Harry," Mr. Weasley panted. "We hoped you'd only gone one grate too far…" He mopped his glistening bald patch. "Molly's frantic — she's coming now —"**

"**Where did you come out?" Ron asked.**

"**Knockturn Alley," said Hagrid grimly.**

"**Excellent!" said Fred and George together.**

"**We've never been allowed in," said Ron enviously.**

"**I should ruddy well think not," growled Hagrid. Mrs. Weasley now came galloping into view, her handbag swinging wildly in one hand, Ginny just clinging onto the other. Alex was already sprinting a few paces ahead. **

"**Harry!" she shrieked, pulling him into a hug. **

"I was worried," Alex said sheepishly.

"**Oh, Harry — oh, my dear — you could have been anywhere —"**

**Gasping for breath Mrs. Weasley pulled a large clothes brush out of her bag and began sweeping off the soot Hagrid hadn't managed to beat away. Mr. Weasley took Harry's glasses, gave them a tap of his wand, and returned them, good as new.**

**"Good to see ya again Alex.** **Well, gotta be off," said Hagrid, who was having his hand wrung by Mrs. Weasley ("Knockturn Alley! If you hadn't found him, Hagrid!"). "See yer at Hogwarts!" And he strode away, head and shoulders taller than anyone else in the packed street.**

"**Guess who I saw in Borgin and Burkes?" Harry asked Ron and Hermione as they climbed the Gringotts steps. "Malfoy and his father."**

"You tell them more than you tell me," Alex pouted.

"You tell Ginny more than you tell me!" Harry protested.

"That's different because Ginny's a girl," Alex countered.

"Ron's a boy," Harry pointed out.

"Thanks for noticing mate," Ron said amusedly.

Alex just rolled her eyes and Harry looked completely confused.

"**Did Lucius Malfoy buy anything?" said Mr. Weasley sharply behind them.**

"**No, he was selling —"**

"**So he's worried," said Mr. Weasley with grim satisfaction. "Oh, I'd love to get Lucius Malfoy for something…"**

Arthur grinned, "And I have."

"**You be careful, Arthur," said Mrs. Weasley sharply as they were bowed into the bank by a goblin at the door. "That family's trouble. Don't go biting off more than you can chew —"**

"**So you don't think I'm a match for Lucius Malfoy?" said Mr. Weasley indignantly, but he was distracted almost at once by the sight of Hermione's parents, who were standing nervously at the counter that ran all along the great marble hall, waiting for Hermione to introduce them.**

"**But you're Muggles!" said Mr. Weasley delightedly. "We must have a drink! What's that you've got there? Oh, you're changing Muggle money. Molly, look!" He pointed excitedly at the ten-pound notes in Mr. Granger's hand.**

"I have to say you frightened them a little Mr. Weasley," Hermione said gently.

"Oh no!" Arthur said, sounding horrified.

"No its okay," Hermione rushed to assure him. "You were a great introduction to the Wizard world for them."

"**Meet you back here," Ron said to Hermione as the Weasleys and the Potters were led off to their underground vaults by another Gringotts goblin.**

**The vaults were reached by means of small, goblin-driven carts that sped along miniature train tracks through the bank's underground tunnels. Harry enjoyed the breakneck journey down to the Weasleys' vault, but felt dreadful, far worse than he had in Knockturn Alley, when it was opened. There was a very small pile of silver Sickles inside, and just one gold Galleon. **

**Mrs. Weasley felt right into the corners before sweeping the whole lot into her bag. Harry felt even worse when they reached his vault. Alex gasped as he tried to block the contents from view as he hastily shoved handfuls of coins into a leather bag.**

**Back outside on the marble steps, they all separated. Percy muttered vaguely about needing a new quill. Fred and George had spotted their friend from Hogwarts, Lee Jordan. Mrs. Weasley, Ginny, and Alex were going to get the girls' things for their first year. Mr. Weasley was insisting on taking the Grangers off to the Leaky Cauldron for a drink.**

"**We'll all meet at Flourish and Blotts in an hour to buy your schoolbooks," said Mrs. Weasley, setting off with Ginny and Alex. "And not one step down Knockturn Alley!" she shouted at the twins' retreating backs.**

**Harry, Ron, and Hermione strolled off along the winding, cobbled street. The bag of gold, silver, and bronze jangling cheerfully in Harry's pocket was clamoring to be spent, so he bought three large strawberry-and-peanut-butter ice creams, which they slurped happily as they wandered up the alley, examining the fascinating shop windows. Ron gazed longingly at a full set of Chudley Cannon robes in the windows of Quality Quidditch Supplies until Hermione dragged them off to buy ink and parchment next door. In Gambol and Japes Wizarding Joke Shop, they met Fred, George, and Lee Jordan, who were stocking up on Dr. Filibuster's Fabulous Wet-Start, No-Heat Fireworks, and in a tiny junk shop full of broken wands, lopsided brass scales, and old cloaks covered in potion stains they found Percy, deeply immersed in a small and deeply boring book called Prefects Who Gained Power.**

A blush crept across Percy's face.

"**A study of Hogwarts prefects and their later careers," Ron read aloud off the back cover. "That sounds fascinating…"**

"**Go away," Percy snapped.**

"'**Course, he's very ambitious, Percy, he's got it all planned out… He wants to be Minister of Magic…" Ron told Harry and Hermione in an undertone as they left Percy to it.**

"There's nothing wrong with that," Percy said indigenously.

**An hour later, they headed for Flourish and Blotts. They were by no means the only ones making their way to the bookshop. As they approached it, they saw to their surprise a large crowd jostling outside the doors, trying to get in. The reason for this was proclaimed by a large banner stretched across the upper windows:**

**GILDEROY LOCKHART** **will be signing copies of his autobiography**

**MAGICAL ME**

**Today 12:30 - 4:30 P.M.**

"Sounds like a grand time," Reus said dryly.

"**We can actually meet him!" Hermione squealed. "I mean, he's written almost the whole booklist!"**

"Not one word!" Hermione shrieked.

**The crowd seemed to be made up mostly of witches around Mrs. Weasley's age. A harassed-looking wizard stood at the door, saying, "Calmly, please, ladies… Don't push, there… mind the books, now…"**

**Harry, Ron, and Hermione squeezed inside. A long line wound right to the back of the shop, where Gilderoy Lockhart was signing his books. They each grabbed a copy of The Standard Book of Spells, Grade 2 and sneaked up the line to where the rest of the Weasleys and Alex were standing with Mr. and Mrs. Granger.**

"**Oh, there you are, good," said Mrs. Weasley. She sounded breathless and kept patting her hair. "We'll be able to see him in a minute…"**

**Gilderoy Lockhart came slowly into view, seated at a table surrounded by large pictures of his own face, all winking and flashing dazzlingly white teeth at the crowd. The real Lockhart was wearing robes of forget-me-not blue that exactly matched his eyes; his pointed wizard's hat was set at a jaunty angle on his wavy hair. **

Sirius wrinkled his nose.

**A short, irritable-looking man was dancing around taking photographs with a large black camera that emitted puffs of purple smoke with every blinding flash.**

"**Out of the way, there," he snarled at Ron, moving back to get a better shot. "This is for the Daily Prophet —"**

"**Big deal," said Ron, rubbing his foot where the photographer had stepped on it.**

**Gilderoy Lockhart heard him. He looked up.**

"So that was your fault!" Harry glowered at him.

Ron laughed as Alex glared at him also, "Sorry guys,"

**He saw Ron — and then he saw Harry. He stared. Then he leapt to his feet and positively shouted, "It can't be Harry Potter?"**

**The crowd parted, whispering excitedly; Lockhart dived forward, seized Harry's arm, who in turn grabbed his sister's arm, and pulled them to the front. **

"Why did you have to grab me?" Alex grumbled.

"I wasn't about to go through that alone," Harry said.

"**And Alexandra too!" Lockhart crooned.**

**The crowd burst into applause. Harry's face burned as Lockhart shook his hand, then his sister's, for the photographer, who was clicking away madly, wafting thick smoke over the Weasleys.**

"**Nice big smile, Harry, Alexandra" said Lockhart, through his own gleaming teeth. "Together, the three of us are worth the front page."**

**When he finally let go of Harry's hand, Harry could hardly feel his fingers. He tried to sidle back over to the Weasleys, but Lockhart threw an arm around his shoulders and clamped him tightly to his side. Harry didn't let go of his sister either, who was as bright faced as he was.**

"**Ladies and gentlemen," he said loudly, waving for quiet. "What an extraordinary moment this is! The perfect moment for me to make a little announcement I've been sitting on for some time!**

"**When the young Potters here stepped into Flourish and Blotts today, they only wanted to buy my autobiography — which I shall be happy to present them both now, free of charge —" The crowd applauded again. **

"**He had no idea," Lockhart continued, giving Harry a little shake that made his glasses slip to the end of his nose and also jostled Alex, "that they would shortly be getting much, much more than my book, Magical Me. Them and their schoolmates will, in fact, be getting the real magical me. **

"No," Sirius and Charlie muttered, horrified.

"So he's the idiot who didn't teach you anything!" Remus said.

**Yes, ladies and gentlemen, I have great pleasure and pride in announcing that this September; I will be taking up the post of Defense Against the Dark Arts teacher at Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry!"**

"How could you do that to the Hogwart's population, sir?" Bill asked.

"Alas," Dumbledore sighed. "He was the only one willing to take that job."

**The crowd cheered and clapped and the Potters both found themselves being presented with the entire works of Gilderoy Lockhart. Staggering slightly under their weight, Harry and Alex managed to make his way out of the limelight to the edge of the room, where Ginny was standing next to her new cauldron.**

"**You have these," Harry mumbled to her, tipping the books into the cauldron. "I'll buy my own —"**

"**Bet you loved that, didn't you, Potter?" said a voice Harry had no trouble recognizing. **

**He straightened up and found himself face-to-face with Draco Malfoy, who was wearing his usual sneer.**

"**Famous Harry Potter and his little sister," said Malfoy. "Can't even go into a bookshop without making the front page."**

"**Leave him alone, he didn't want all that!" said Ginny. It was the first time she had spoken in front of Harry. She and Alex were glaring at Malfoy.**

"**Potter, you've got yourself a girlfriend!" drawled Malfoy. Ginny went scarlet as Ron and Hermione fought their way over, both clutching stacks of Lockhart's books.**

"**Oh, it's you," said Ron, looking at Malfoy as if he were something unpleasant on the sole of his shoe. "Bet you're surprised to see Harry here, eh?"**

"**Not as surprised as I am to see you in a shop, Weasley," retorted Malfoy. "I suppose your parents will go hungry for a month to pay for all those."**

"**What is your problem?" Alex exclaimed.**

**Ron went as red as Ginny. He dropped his books into the cauldron, too, and started toward Malfoy, but Harry and Hermione grabbed the back of his jacket.**

"**Ron!" said Mr. Weasley, struggling over with Fred and George. "What are you doing? It's too crowded in here, let's go outside."**

"**Well, well, well — Arthur Weasley."**

"This won't turn out good," Bill said.

**It was Mr. Malfoy. He stood with his hand on Draco's shoulder, sneering in just the same way.**

"**Lucius," said Mr. Weasley, nodding coldly.**

"**Busy time at the Ministry, I hear," said Mr. Malfoy. "All those raids… I hope they're paying you overtime?"**

**He reached into Ginny's cauldron and extracted, from amid the glossy Lockhart books, a very old, very battered copy of A Beginner's Guide to Transfiguration.**

"**Obviously not," Mr. Malfoy said. "Dear me, what's the use of being a disgrace to the name of wizard if they don't even pay you well for it?"**

**Mr. Weasley flushed darker than either Ron or Ginny.**

"**We have a very different idea of what disgraces the name of wizard, Malfoy," he said.**

"**Clearly," said Mr. Malfoy, his pale eyes straying to Mr. and Mrs. Granger, who were watching apprehensively. "The company you keep, Weasley… and I thought your family could sink no lower." **

"Don't insult my family Malfoy!" Hermione yelled in anger.

**There was a thud of metal as Ginny's cauldron went flying; Mr. Weasley had thrown himself at Mr. Malfoy, knocking him backward into a bookshelf. **

"Dad?" Charlie gasped, eyes wide.

"Go Dad!" Bill exclaimed.

"Arthur?" McGonagall gaped.

"Good on ya!" Sirius smiled.

**Dozens of heavy spellbooks came thundering down on all their heads; there was a yell of, "Get him, Dad!" from Fred or George; **

"I thought you could tell us apart Harry," George said, souding disappointed.

"Alex and I can," Harry nodded. "But when a lot's going on its hard to tell."

**Mrs. Weasley was shrieking, "No, Arthur, no!"; the crowd stampeded backward, knocking more shelves over; "Gentlemen, please — please!" cried the assistant, and then, louder than all —**

"**Break it up, there, gents, break it up —"**

**Hagrid was wading toward them through the sea of books. In an instant he had pulled Mr. Weasley and Mr. Malfoy apart. Mr. Weasley had a cut lip and Mr. Malfoy had been hit in the eye by an Encyclopedia of Toadstools. He was still holding Ginny's old Transfiguration book. He thrust it at her, his eyes glittering with malice.**

Ginny and Alex shrunk back while Golden Trio glowered at the book. Mr. and Mrs. Wesley grabbed each other's hands.

"**Here, girl — take your book — it's the best your father can give you —" Pulling himself out of Hagrid's grip he beckoned to Draco and swept from the shop.**

"**Yeh should've ignored him, Arthur," said Hagrid, almost lifting Mr. Weasley off his feet as he straightened his robes. "Rotten ter the core, the whole family, everyone knows that — no Malfoy's worth listenin' ter — bad blood, that's what it is — come on now — let's get outta here."**

**The assistant looked as though he wanted to stop them leaving, but he barely came up to Hagrid's waist and seemed to think better of it. They hurried up the street, the Grangers shaking with fright and Mrs. Weasley beside herself with fury.**

"**A fine example to set for your children… brawling in public… what Gilderoy Lockhart must've thought —"**

"**He was pleased," said Fred. "Didn't you hear him as we were leaving? He was asking that bloke from the Daily Prophet if he'd be able to work the fight into his report — said it was all publicity —"**

**But it was a subdued group that headed back to the fireside in the Leaky Cauldron, where Harry, Alex, the Weasleys, and all their shopping would be traveling back to the Burrow using Floo powder. They said good-bye to the Grangers, who were leaving the pub for the Muggle street on the other side; Mr. Weasley started to ask them how bus stops worked, but stopped quickly at the look on Mrs. Weasley's face.**

**Harry took off his glasses and put them safely in his pocket before helping himself to Floo powder. It definitely wasn't his favorite way to travel.**

"Mine either," Alex said. "But at least _I_ did it right the first time."

Harry rolled his eyes as Minerva handed the book to Dumbledore.

"**The Whomping Willow**."

R&R please


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